If anyone likes this book and hasn't read John C. Wright's The Golden Age series, I can't recommend it enough.
Another space opera I felt the same way about is Peter Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga. There's also a trilogy and some other novels set in the same universe. 99% of the fiction I read is space opera, and the Commonwealth universe is definitely my favorite. So action-packed and enthralling, couldn't put the books down. As a matter of fact — it's been a few years since I've read them, and I'm almost done with Lords of Uncreation, so I think I may read it again :)
That's a name I haven't heard in a while. I remember that his Awake in the Night was a fantastic reimagining of William Hope Hodgson's (terrible) The Night Land
1: https://archive.org/details/john-c-wright-awake-in-the-night
This story is chilling and hints at a deep viciousness of character, which unfortunately does come out quite a bit of you follow him further. http://www.sfsfss.com/stories2/guest-law.pdf
Still, the first 20 pages of the Golden Oecumene are so amazingly stylized and interesting, and the whole thing is great.