Larry Niven's short story collections are well worth picking up. His first is 'Inconstant Moon' and it's where I first discovered him. Some of the stories later developed into key parts of his Known Space cycle of short stries and novellas. They're all great stuff, but IM is the starting point.

If you like it you can check out the rest, if not then they're only short stories so not too much of an investment in time.