Sounds about right
Niven gave the Mote stories some depth. Footfall has a bang-up ending [spoiler alert, but I'll bet you don't care] involving an Orion nuclear-push battle-cruiser rising out of the Seattle suburbs, and a valiant space battle once in orbit. But the alien invaders seemed flat and two-dimensional. They reminded me of a shadow of the aliens in the same role in Harry Turtledove's WordWar/Colonization bitrilogy. Of the two, I recommend trying at least the first Mote book, some day.