Van Rijn And His Team

Seven of the eleven Technic History instalments collected in Volume I, The Van Rijn Method, are not about Nicholas van Rijn. However, they present the necessary background for his existence:

interplanetary travel;

interstellar exploration;

the Ythrians, with whom van Rijn travels in Volume II;

the Polesotechnic League;

other merchants in the League;

the earlier lives of two later members of van Rijn's trader team which is introduced in Volume II.

Van Rijn and/or his trader team fill six of the seven instalments collected in Volume II, David Falkayn: Star Trader so that, at this stage, they dominate the series. However, their final appearance is in the first of six instalments collected in Volume III, Rise Of The Terran Empire, and there are four more volumes after that. A monumental future history series.