On 5/26/2020 9:41 AM, xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> The second story I mentioned was actually planet bound. I think what
> happened was they landed, people started getting sick and not
> functioning well (regressing) and some of the smart folks holed up
> somewhere (maybe near the ship?). I think they changed over time too,
> but slower. I think the lad who became (or travelled with) traders found
> something to help in a local food source somewhere and realized there
> was a way to spread it innocuously around so that everyone eventually
> got some and people regained their potential.

I /thought/ your second story might have been a mis-remembered,
planet-side novel, and your correction confirmed it.  The book in
question is "Destiny's Road", by Larry Niven; the local sealife turned
out to sequester potassium, the shortage of which in RL has various bad
health consequences but in the story mostly led to mental impairment.
The "merchants" found a solution (a potassium-rich native plant), but
also  discovered they /liked/ being on top of the new social order they
created to fix things, and decided to keep their monopoly until the
protag finds out the truth and ultimately ends it.

Yet another example, in a way, would be the Legacy of Heorot series
(Niven, Pournelle and Barnes), in which many of the hand-picked,
best-and-brightest colonists ended up coming out of cryo at the
destination with some degree of brain damage.  Some cases of "freezer
burn" were milder than others, fortunately; and their /kids/ are all
just fine, leading to (more) tension between generations.

--
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Kelly St. Clair
xxxxxx@efn.org