Books like The Mote in God's Eye

In 3016, the 2nd Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to faster-than-light Alderson Drive. Intelligent beings are finally found from the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud. The bottled-up ancient civilization, at least one million years old, are welcoming, kind, yet evasive, with a dark problem they have not solved in over a million years.

Liked The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven? Here's what readers who loved it picked up next.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (1973) · 4.06★
Gateway by Frederik Pohl (1977) · 4.07★
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein (1966) · 4.17★
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (1974) · 4.15★
The Uplift War by David Brin (1987) · 4.06★
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer (1971) · 3.94★
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (1992) · 4.13★
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein (1959) · 3.99★
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke (1953) · 4.09★
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov (1972) · 4.08★
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1955) · 4.13★
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959) · 3.97★