New Universe was crazy good. Ellis and Laroca. But apparently Ellis' scripts got deleted off his laptop by accident and he never returned to the series. So its definitely worth reading but you gotta know that you won't get a solid resolution to things.
Rising Stars.....man I haven't read that in years but at the time it was among my favorites. I think it ended a little weak (which seems to be a thing with JMS) but still worth getting.