If you enjoyed Crest o' the Stars and Banner o' the Stars, then David Weber's 'Honor Harrington' series offers space opera in similarly gargantuan and magnificent scope.
As in, multiple fleets of major, mongo, line-of-battle capital ships, and hundreds if not thousands of times the 'missile spam' of Macross or Gundam.
Not to mention an indomitable, kick-ass central character and a supremely competent, innovative, quick-thinking, and able team of officers to support her.
Big change for anime though would be that she's actually in her twenties and thirties, as opposed to the typical anime shoujo four-striper who happens to still be in high school all the time...