Larry Niven's aliens

One of the things that Larry Niven really does well in his known space universe is the way the aliens are handled. The Puppeteers , Outsiders , and Kzin are all entities with political agendas perpendicular or tangential to the human sphere . Because of that there's this limited sharing of information with humans. This works really well from a narrative standpoint because it allows the author to include sapient alien life in the series as a given, without sacrificing the "mystery" of aliens. So many other sci fi botch this by giving massive exposition to the aliens in the story and their relationships with humans. In Nivens worlds, its simply uncommon for humans to have dealings with Puppeteers or outsiders, which works and seems logical. The rest are kept interesting for other reasons ... the Kzin are political enemies of mankind, bandersnatchi are only barely intelligent, and kdatlyno see only radar. In 20th century sci fi in particular, the narrative handling of alien life could be a real eyesore. I'd have to say it was rarely handled in a way that so well serves the narrative as in Niven's writing. His work has other problems , but this is done well. I'd compare it to Lovecraft's treatment of the Old Ones, never truly revealing their origins and intentions.