People And Planets

The narrative wealth of The Technic Civilization Saga is such that the single trader team story that does not even mention the team's employer, Nicholas van Rijn, is immediately followed by another story that unexpectedly reintroduces that massive merchant but through elaborate layers of other characters, as I have outlined elsewhere:

the narrator;
the narrator's friend;
the friend's son;
the son's ensign;
the son's and ensign's employer, van Rijn.

The trader team saves Merseia whereas van Rijn, wallowing in a lounger on Earth, solves a problem about the planet Cain. The narrator describes him as:

"...the single-handed conqueror of Borthu, Diomedes and t'Kela!"
-see A Man And His Rep.

So many characters and so many planets.