I loved Lucifer’s Hammer, Footfall, and The Mote In God’s Eye but I hated the Gripping Hand...only read the first 100 pages and had to set it aside.
I haven’t read Gripping Hand because it got horrible reviews. I recommend Niven’s Known Space books (particularly Ringworld, Ringworld Engineers, A World of Ptaavs, and various short story collections) and Pournelle’s King David’s Spaceship, also set in the same universe as Mote. Legacy of Heorot is pretty good but I’ve heard mixed things about the sequel.
Mote in God’s Eye..one of the best. I agree with Gripping Hand..not too good, loved Footfall, never met anyone else that had ever read it.