Thanks
I will check out the Stephenson books and I'm glad you reminded me of Benford. I have never read him but I have heard some of his stuff is good
The only Niven I have read so far are The Integral Trees and the sequel Smoke Ring. The whole premise of a habitable gas ring around a dead neutron star is a bit more exotic than I like but I admired Niven's ability to make it interesting and readable anyway.
I have a copy of Ring World and Ring World Engineers and I'll be reading them soon