Creative Destruction

This was my first encounter with the author.  Note that he later co-authored the Rindworld presquels with Larry Niven.  If you want to cover all of your "Ringworld" bases - I recommend these novels.

These prequel novels are certainly significantly better than all of the later Ringworld sequels.  I stongly suggest that you veer off after you read the first sequel (and even that is nowhere near as good as the original novel "Ringworld").