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story identification - Looking for title of book, with hostile flora, tax laws


Long, long ago (probably early 80's), I read a book which actually contained three stories/books, may be by different authors, I don't recall. This particular (Dutch) edition had their pages colored in three different pastel tints, but that may not be the way they were distributed elsewhere. One of the books was a story about a planet with an extreme human-hostile flora. The human inhabitants needed extreme reflexes to deal with newly evolved species. This might be a Harry Harrison story. The second story was about a space castaway guy who, at the end of his life, prepared the friendly inhabitants of the planet for an invasion of human capitalist types. There is a long legal battle and in the end the aboriginals win by introducing certain tax laws. The third story eludes me at the moment.


I'd love to know the title of this collection as well as the specifics of these three stories.



Answer



The first one sounds like Deathworld by Harry Harrison. The second is Monument by Lloyd Biggle Jr.


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