More like The Animal-Cracker Plot

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Known SpaceUniverse
universe142 books1964
Set in space.
“Give a clever species a few centuries and a working fusion drive, and it will fill the sky with problems.”
from the catalogue
Start with Ringworld →
includes Ringworld, Fleet of Worlds, Man-Kzin Wars
CoDominiumUniverse
universe98 books1971
Military science fiction.
“The body of work runs along a few hard threads rather than one line.”
from the catalogue
Start with The Mote in God's Eye →
includes Moties, Falkenberg's Legion, War World, Laurie Jo Hansen
HeecheeSeries
series19 books1972
completed
About space exploration, set in space.
“The Heechee are an advanced alien race that visited the Solar System hundreds of millennia ago and then mysteriously disappeared.”
from the catalogue
Start with Gateway →
The Colors of SpaceNovel
Marion Zimmer Bradleystandalone novel1963
Mysterious in tone, about space exploration, set in space.
“The Lhari seem peaceful and friendly, but they go to some lengths to protect their monopoly on faster-than-light travel.”
from the catalogue
Humanx CommonwealthUniverse
universe39 books1972
Set in space.
“Two species that ought, by every buried instinct, to recoil from one another instead clasp hand to truhand and build a galaxy together.”
from the catalogue
Start with For Love of Mother-Not →
includes Pip & Flinx, Icerigger Trilogy, The Founding of the Commonwealth
UpliftUniverse
universe13 books1980
About uplift, set in space.
“No species, the Galactics insist, ever climbs to sapience alone.”
from the catalogue
Start with Sundiver →
includes Uplift, Uplift Storm