Try Debra Doyle and James MacDonald's "Mageworlds" series. Classic space opera.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...e_of_the_Stars
Book One of the Mageworlds--the breakneck SF epic of the most brawling family in the human galaxy. The centuries-long conflict between the human Republic and the mysterious Mageworlds has been over for 30 years. But now an assassination on the Senate floor threatens to shatter the fragile peace.