Tales of Known Space

• World of Ptavvs (1966)
• A Gift from Earth (1968)
• Neutron Star (1968 collection)
• The Shape of Space (1969 collection)
• Protector (1973)—Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1974^[1]
• Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven (1975 collection)
  • Three Books of Known Space (1996 reprint of Tales of Known Space, with "Madness Has Its Place" in place of "The Borderland of Sol", bundled with World of Ptavvs and A Gift from Earth)
• The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton (1976 collection, reprinted as Flatlander in 1995 with additional content including The Patchwork Girl)
• The Patchwork Girl (1980)
• World of Ptavvs / A Gift From Earth / Neutron Star (1991 omnibus)
• Crashlander: The Collected Tales of Beowulf Shaeffer (1994 collection)

Ringworld

1. Ringworld (1970)—Nebula Award, 1970^[2] Hugo and Locus SF Awards winner, 1971^[3]
2. The Ringworld Engineers (1979)—Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1981^[4]
   • Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld (1994, with Kevin Stein)
3. The Ringworld Throne (1996)
4. Ringworld's Children (2004)

Worlds series (with Edward M. Lerner)

1. Fleet of Worlds (2007)
2. Juggler of Worlds (2008)
3. Destroyer of Worlds (2009)
4. Betrayer of Worlds (2010)
5. Fate of Worlds (2012)—Also serves as conclusion to Ringworld series

Man-Kzin Wars

• Man-Kzin anthologies

1. The Man-Kzin Wars (1988)
2. Man-Kzin Wars II (1989)
3. Man-Kzin Wars III (1990)
4. Man-Kzin Wars IV (1991)
5. Man-Kzin Wars V (1992)
6. Man-Kzin Wars VI (1994)
7. Man-Kzin Wars VII (1995)
8. Man-Kzin Wars VIII: Choosing Names (1998)
   • The Best of All Possible Wars: The Best of the Man-Kzin Wars (1998)
9. Man-Kzin Wars IX (2002)
10. Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War (2003)
11. Man-Kzin Wars XI (2005)
12. Man-Kzin Wars XII (2009)
13. Man-Kzin Wars XIII (2012)
14. Man-Kzin Wars XIV (2013)
15. Man-Kzin Wars XV (2019)

• Man-Kzin novels

1. Cathouse: A Novel of the Man Kzin-Wars (1990, with Dean Ing)
   • Cathouse compiles two stories from the first two "Man-Kzin Wars" books and contains no new material.
2. The Children's Hour: A Novel of the Man-Kzin Wars (1991, with Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling)
   • The Children's Hour contains some material previously published in "Man-Kzin Wars" volumes II and III.
3. Inconstant Star (1991, with Poul Anderson)
   • Inconstant Star compiles two stories from "Man-Kzin Wars" volumes I and III and contains no new material.
4. A Darker Geometry (1996, with Mark O. Martin and Gregory Benford)
   • A Darker Geometry contains some material previously published in "Man-Kzin Wars" volume VII.
5. The Houses of the Kzinti (2002, with Dean Ing, Jerry Pournelle, S. M. Stirling)
   • Houses of the Kzinti is a compiled edition of the previously-published Cathouse and The Children's Hour and contains no new material.
6. Destiny's Forge: A Man-Kzin Wars Novel (2007, with Paul Chafe)

The State

1. A World Out of Time (1976)—Locus SF Award nominee, 1977^[5]
2. The Integral Trees (1984)—Nebula Award nominee, 1984;^[6] Locus SF Award winner, and Hugo nominee, 1985^[7]
3. The Smoke Ring (1987)

Magic Goes Away

• The Magic Goes Away (1978)
• The Magic May Return (1981)
• More Magic (1984)
• The Time of the Warlock (1984 collection of two short stories plus The Magic Goes Away)
• The Magic Goes Away Collection (2005 omnibus of The Magic Goes Away, The Magic May Return, and More Magic)

Heorot

1. The Legacy of Heorot (1987) (with Steven Barnes and Jerry Pournelle) (release order book 1)
2. Beowulf's Children (1995, UK: The Dragons of Heorot) (with Barnes and Pournelle) (book 2)
3. The Dragons of Heorot (1996) (with Steven Barnes and Jerry Pournelle) (UK version of book 2)
4. Destiny's Road (1997) (by Niven alone; not precisely a continuation of the Heorot series: located in the same universe, events from the first two novels are briefly mentioned) (book 3)
5. The Secret of Black Ship Island (2012) (novella; with Steven Barnes and Jerry Pournelle) (book 4)
6. Starborn & Godsons (2020) (with Barnes and Pournelle) (release order book 5) (stated book 3 in series)

With Jerry Pournelle

• Lucifer's Hammer (1977)—Hugo Award nominee, 1978^[8]
• Oath of Fealty (1981)
• Footfall (1985)—Hugo and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1986^[9]
• Lucifer's Anvil or Samael's Forge (in-progress as of 2013) (not a sequel to Lucifer's Hammer) ^[10][11][12]

Dante series

1. Inferno (1976)—Hugo and Nebula Awards nominee, 1976^[13]
2. Escape from Hell (2009)

Moties—part of Pournelle's CoDominium fictional universe

1. The Mote in God's Eye (1974)—Hugo, Nebula and Locus SF Awards nominee, 1975^[14]
2. The Gripping Hand (1993, UK: The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye)

Golden Road (set in the same "Magic Universe" as The Magic Goes Away)

1. The Burning City (2000)
2. Burning Tower (2005)
3. Burning Mountain (in progress)

With Steven Barnes

• The Descent of Anansi (1982)
• Achilles' Choice (1991)
• Saturn's Race (2001)
• The Seascape Tattoo (2016) (part of the Magic Goes Away universe)

Dream Park

1. Dream Park (1981)—Locus SF Award nominee, 1982^[15]
2. The Barsoom Project (1989)
3. The California Voodoo Game (1992, UK: The Voodoo Game)
4. The Moon Maze Game (2011)

With Gregory Benford

Bowl of Heaven

• Bowl of Heaven (2012)
• Shipstar (2014)
• Glorious (2020)

Other novels

• The Flying Sorcerers (1971, with David Gerrold), previously serialized as "The Misspelled Magishun", includes portraits of other science fiction authors—e.g. the lead character name becomes translated into the local language as "As a color, shade of purple-gray" (or Purple for short), that is, "As-A-Mauve"
• Berserker Base: A Collaborative Novel (1984, with Poul Anderson, Edward Bryant, Stephen R. Donaldson, Fred Saberhagen, Connie Willis, and Roger Zelazny)
• Fallen Angels (1991, with Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn)
• Building Harlequin's Moon (2005, with Brenda Cooper)
• The Goliath Stone (2013, with Matthew Joseph Harrington)