Tom

There's Heinlein, of course. Stephenson and Vinge have rather different worldviews; read Egan short stories because they're good, but they're not particularly Nivenesque.

nanorc

David Gerrold's Star Wolf novels have always reminded me of Niven's Known Space universe.

Pete Tillman

An obvious one to try is Jerry Pournelle's solo novels. Though they don't have the lightness & sheer joi de vivre that characterizes classic Niven stories. And you might try David Weber's "Apocalypse Troll" -- see review at URL below. Book Reviews: http://www.silcom.com/~manatee/reviewer.html#tillman
You'd probably also like the volume of Niven's essays, collected & sold at a con AWB. Forget title, but look at www.sfsite.com/isfdb/

James Nicoll

Heh. If you can find a copy, try Gerrold's Space Skimmer.

Dan Goodman

If you haven't tried _Destiny's Road_ yet, do. It's very different from the "Ringworld let-see-if-I-can-write-another-bloated-sequel" books.

Steve

John Varley's early works, esp. the stories in the collections Persistance of Vision and The Barbie Murders have always seemed Nivenesque to me.

Nesssus

Can I suggest adding a mention to Dan Simmons' Hyperion. There are many similarities between the technologies of Hyperion and those of Known Space. It is a society set in the Ringworld era of the future with transport technology abundant although Simmons has gone one step further and added the wormhole effect in them to enable transport to other stars. There are human outcasts living on habitats in zero gee whose bodies have adapted to the same long limbed variety as those inhabitants of the Smoke Ring and the Integral Trees. Poulsen treatments duplicate the effects of booster spice.

Allan Pratt

An oddly anti-Nivenesque reference: when I asked about finding more Nivenesque SF that didn't devolve into politics (as Blue Mars does), Larry himself suggested Gregory Benford. But I am trying to read "Timescape" and not having a very good time of it. Too much academic politics, not enough of the science/puzzle/exploration aspect that is so Niven. There are just two scientific ideas in Timescape, as far as I can tell: eco-disaster brought about by fertilizer use, and using tachyons to send a message to the past without creating a paradox.

Brendan

Mostly, I like the bits of philosophy and observation that he mixes in - part of his teaching compulsion, I guess. And in his earlier work (pre-"Ringworld Engineers" etc), there were relatively few characters, and they only interacted two at a time.

Pete Tillman

the lightness & sheer joi de vivre that characterizes classic Niven stories.

Nesssus

As for what I like about Larry's stories, there is always some hint of super science about them and the humour.

Allan Pratt

Science/technology ideas, puzzles to solve, exploration and tourism. Exploration of the impact of science on society, but not to the extent that it crowds out the story. Mind-stretching ideas in a story that moves briskly forward. Optimism and likable characters. A consistent playground in which the central and peripheral ideas can be explored by readers for fun.

For characterising Niven, there users would be able to add to an existing category; or create a whole new one. Beginning categories might be "Lightness", "Puzzles" and "Ideas". There would be a link next to each to add a comment; and a last one to add a new category.

at the very top of the screen might be a list of hyperlinks to authors, to quickly move to them.

Mail your suggestions to: bren@csse.monash.edu.au