Best Space Operas

Space Operas are my favorites, so I am glad to see SF Signal's list from various authors:

Captain Future stories of Edmond Hamilton
Jack McDevitt's Alex Benedict series
Allen Steele's Coyote series
James Blish's Cities in Flight series
Alastair Reynolds' Inhibitor series
Gwyneth Jones's Aleutian trilogy
Stephen Baxter's epic Xeelee Sequence
The Lensman series
The Mote In God's Eye (Niven/Pournelle)
Eon (Bear)
The Forever War (Haldeman)
Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton
Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld
Hellflower series by Eluki bes Shahar
Iain Banks and the Culture novels
Dune, the first three
Asimov's Foundation series
Ursula K. Le Guin, Hainish cycle
Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan novels
Lee & Miller's Liaden Universe books
Kristine Smith's Jani Killian books
The Kimbriel Nuala books
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel; Between Planets; Farmer in the Sky (Heinlein)Vernor Vinge - Fire Upon The Deep
David Brin - the Uplift War trilogy
Bruce Sterling - Schismatrix

If I've read appreciable numbers in a series I put it in bold, even if I haven't read them all.