My views
First of all, let's say that what I read had me completely hooked as soon as I knew about the setting. Once I had the Starfarer hand book, I started a game that was an instant success with my players.
OTOH, after some time, I was a bit taken by surprise with the lack of setting information in the guide to the galaxy. I expected a background only book filled with campaing ideas and the like. But, what we received was an average 30% setting, and 70% crunchy. After some thoughts about it I soon found out that the lack of setting was a boon to me because I detailed a sector, that encompass the 10 dragon houses but is situated much higher in the generale central plane of the galaxy (In the outer regions). And once I started detailing that section I found out that what DS really did to me was get me in a direction that I had not expected to go before learning about the setting. As stated higher in the thread, It got me into a thinking gear and it was a welcome and fresh setting.
What I like : ISPD, Dragon houses, technomagic devices, the possibility to incoporate Arsenal easily, Elves in space with living ships, Sentient AI with a soul, Soul mechs, Magic that can repair a ship (A single Technomancer/Mechanist could really replace a large part of an engineering crew), Mind flayers from the darkzone that come in large carrier ship filled with slave piloted fighter, Beholder hive asteroid ships and so many more.
What I dislike : As stated earlier, a very basic setting(But OTOH it gives and opportunity to build on the basics), the 14 churches(2 pantheons, one of 12 gods and one of 2), only 180 page of Data per book (I would have prefered a large 350 page book set at 2 third the price of both books), the imperial supplies majority of art work, the stolen aliens drop ship theft

. But all the dislikes are only that, dislikes, not hatred. I think that after I took the time to read the imperial supply, I soon went over the artwork and started appreciating the content.
What I changed : At first, I liked the space ship rules because of it's simplicity and straitforward combat system, but I changed for the Travellers T20 rules only as a matter of personal tastes, I also took the Traveller T20 psionics rules, they are basic, but they get the job done.
All in all, I recommand, without a single ounce of doubt, the 2 core books to get you started in making a great magic/technological space opera campaing. I would also recomand the addition of perpetrated press's (
http://www.perpetrated.com/products/products.htm) Arsenal and the soon to be here Factory to add spice to your gaming