I'll second Tral's recommendation. Very much so. I'd also recommend reading the anthologies and the two other books in the HH universe: Crown of Slaves and Shadow of Sanganami. If you want, I can zip through the anthologies and put the short stories in chronological/logical order for you, although you may not be able to do this using the library. It's hard to believe he's not even halfway through that series - it's planned at 30 novels, or so I hear.
Other possibilities - unfortunately I've never read any Scott Westerfield that I know of, so I'll give a wide range of styles:
Start reading anything by Larry Niven. The "Known Space" books in particular, but anything is worth your time. Ask me or KP for a list if you're interested.
Peter F. Hamilton's Reality Disfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God - 6 books in all.
David Drake. Excellent material, but it takes a certain mindset to really get. If you're in the mood for a grim view of reality, he's the go-to guy. In descending order of grimness: Lacey and his friends (good luck finding it, though), the Northworld trilogy, The Reaches trilogy, all the various Hammer's Slammers books, and the Lt. Leary series. There are plenty of other single books out there, too. You really can't go wrong, just be prepared for what you're getting into.
Addendum: read Ranks of Bronze (David Drake) and then The Excalibur Alternative (David Weber).
David Weber's Legacy of Empire (Mutineer's Moon, The Armageddon Inheritance, Heirs of Empire)
Elisabeth Moon: the Serrano series (again, good luck starting from the beginning) and the Vatta War series.
John Ringo: Legacy of the Aldenata (A Hymn Before Battle, etc)
Jerry Pournelle's Falkenberg's Legion series, as well as A Mote In God's Eye and The Gripping Hand. The War World spinoff anthologies were pretty good, as well.
That's what I can read from my chair. Further recommendations might require getting up, and that just isn't happening
A note: if you're like me, you won't like getting into a series unless it's pretty well done - I really hate reading the first book of a trilogy and having to wait several years to get the second and third. If so, avoid the Vatta War series, it's only three books in IIRC. The other ongoing series I've listed (HH in particular) are far enough in that you can read the books already out, then reread them in a few years when the later ones have come out.
