The space opera renaissance Book

First point: This was huge. Just downloading it increased the physical weight of my Kindle by a noticeable amount -- in physical form, it clocks in at 900+ pages.

The title pretty much says it all. This is a survey of three quarters of a century of space opera (for varying definitions of same) ranging from Edmond Hamilton's "The Star Stealers" (1929) to Stephen Baxter's "The Great Game (2002). Also included: Jack Williamson, Iain M. Banks, Ursula K. Le Guin, Leigh Brackett and a couple dozen others, in stories ranging from space pirates vs. the Federation of Space to out-and-out sword & planet ("Enchantress of Venus", the Brackett story) to contemporary weird post-singularity baroque tales (Alastair Reynolds and Alastair Reynolds).

As with any such anthology, you'll like some stories more than others; but if you want to dip your toes into the works of a lot of major authors in the field, you could do a lot worse.

As for myself, my biggest takeaway is: I really,really, really need to read Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books.

OK, a few additional points: First, here's a link to the full table of contents. Second, there's a substantial amount of interesting editorial text -- an overview of the term "space opera" in general, a more focused view for each section (the stories are grouped into roughly chronological sections), and each story has its own introduction discussing the author and often quoting the author's on thoughts on space opera, etc.