Reddit reviews Uncanny X-Men: Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire (v. 1)
We found 3 Reddit comments about Uncanny X-Men: Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire (v. 1). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Messiah War isn't really that "essential" since it's just Cable + Hope running around until the climax in Second Coming, though it's still recommended for those who liked that era of X-Men stories.
CrushingKrisis and ComicBookHerald are good resources for reading orders + links to the print editions.
Here are the Uncanny X-Men #500-534 trades:
Deadly Genesis and Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire (after House of M/Decimation) setup Professor Xavier status quo, fill in some X-gaps, and bridge to cosmic marvel (War of Kings).
Utopia (after Messiah Complex) is often mentioned in later X-books.
Depending on your definition of "essential" (you have Uncanny X-Force in their which is more "optional" but so good most recommend it anyway), other series like Peter David's X-Factor and Simon Spurrier's X-Men Legacy: Legion are also good reads.
I believe it's Rachel from this storyline:
https://www.amazon.com/Uncanny-X-Men-Rise-Shiar-Empire/dp/0785118004/ref=sr_1_1?tag=combooher05-20&ie=UTF8&qid=1324347402&sr=8-1
Ah, I misunderstood, I thought you wanted a complete list in order. Around 2005, Marvel re-vamped their cosmic line with a series of consecutive major cosmic events. However, none of these had any direct effect on the Marvel line - only tangential. Basically you can use the years to place where each event was published, but don't worry about having to read them in any specific order with the rest of the Marvel Universe or X-Men events. As you may have heard, these events introduced the modern Guardians of the Galaxy which inspired the recent movie.
MARVEL SPACE EVENTS