Shoot me in the face and use my dog as an ashtray if you will, but I bought my first Larry Niven book about ten years ago and have since bought just about everything he has published - collaborations or otherwise.

Okay, okay - much of it is a little too pat. And there is an element of Hollywood-centric..uh...ness about it. But when I first encountered Ringworld, I was stoked. And I REALLY encountered it. I can almost taste the weenie plants. Or maybe that's just Pants in the dark.

Pournelle, Ing, et. al. have always had to jack up Niven's nearside when it comes to the personalities and inter-relationships, but when you look at the technology - advanced yet limited in important and consistent ways - you just can't go wrong for the frequent jaw-dropping at his sheer audacity and creativity.

Oh - and for everyone else - go and buy the Big Book of Jerkcity. It contains literally SYLLABLES of previously-unseen material and saves me from having to explain why I am taking my laptop into the bathroom.