The World Is Round - Major Characters

Major Characters

  • Stringer - An aimless, unsociable drifter who always speaks his mind and cares little what others think of him. He's brusque, dour, and bored with life on Two-Bit. Pike enlists him to join the expedition to Hendig's World (Patra-Bannk) after Stringer shows his skill with a sword in a tavern fight.
  • Pike - Wealthy owner of the Two-Bit Transportation Corporation. Recognizes that the artifact that Hendig brought back from Patra-Bannk on his previous voyage is indeed metallic hydrogen, and that he could transform civilization if he could find more of it. He commands the expedition to Patra-Bannk and provides the spacecraft.
  • Valyavar - A former priest and another member of the expedition to Patra-Bannk.
  • Hendig - An oafish braggart who visited Patra-Bannk on an earlier voyage and makes outrageous claims about it, some of which might be true. The fourth member of the expedition.
  • Paddelack - The navigator on Hendig's previous voyage to Patra-Bannk. He was left stranded and has remained there, living among the natives, for about twenty years when the story begins.
  • Taljen - A Tjenen woman who befriends Stringer when he is stranded there.
  • The Time Keeper (Alhane) - The hereditary scientist of Ta-tjenen. He believes the world is round and is determined to prove it, even though none of the other Tjenens believe him.
  • Barbalan - A Gostum woman who helps Pike and Paddelack escape from Konndjlan.
  • Neberdjer - Guiding intelligence of Patra-Bannk.

Read more about this topic:  The World Is Round

Famous quotes containing the words major and/or characters:

    “A major misunderstanding of child rearing has been the idea that meeting a child’s needs is an end in itself, for the purpose of the child’s mental health. Mothers have not understood that this is but one step in social development, the goal of which is to help a child begin to consider others. As a result, they often have not considered their children but have instead allowed their children’s reality to take precedence, out of a fear of damaging them emotionally.”
    —Elaine Heffner (20th century)

    “The more gifted and talkative one’s characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind.”
    —Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)