I love Neal Asher’s books, found him a long time ago in one of those “year’s best” collections of short stories from the library (though the ones with fantasy and horror were always the best, I think I read every single collection for every year and found so many good writers that way.)
They are full of action, good characters and worlds and ideas, sweeping and huge settings. Feels almost more like watching a movie to read them.
Who among us likes these action packed stories?
The Vorkosigan Saga by Bujold is considered to be some of the best space opera in the entire genre, definitely recommend giving it a try. Start with Warriors Apprentice if Shards of Honor isn’t to your liking.
I jived best with Warrior’s Apprentice, but my friend, who reads more romance (I generally don’t read it), liked Shards of Honor just fine.
The series as a whole is top-tier sci-fi, but Shards of Honor is definitely a romance in SFF trappings, and one of Bujold’s earlier books (which, to me, shows, as she’s still honing her chops).