Another "what is the name of that story" question... Sorry if it's annoyingly easy, but I can't find the title anywhere--and am not sure it's Bradbury's.

Someone finds a meteorite and cuts it open, missing the alien warnings on concentric shells. He finds a jelly inside, feeds it to his cat, and eventually people become infected with a highly contagious disease that makes their skin grey and they have the compulsion to touch others.

Society breaks down as people try to avoid the infected people--the story is about the protagonist's attempt to escape, and befriending an infected woman along the way. I believe it was set in Texas.

Help is appreciated!

Sounds like "Dark Benediction" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Try also "The Color Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft as well as a couple of Stephen King stories.

Sounds like HG Wells on crack.
Cheers, Translator

Translator

Hm! 'Crack' is a 1970's drug invention. H.G. wouldn't know what you were talking about...

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
Sounds like "Dark Benediction" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. Try also "The Color Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft as well as a couple of Stephen King stories.

Bingo! You're the best! I'm pretty durn sure it was Dark Benediction, from the descriptions I find online. Although it was long ago, in retrospect, it does seem like Miller (though I've read little more than A Canticle for Leibowitz).

The problem was, it was beat-up paperback anthology in which many pages were missing, upside down, and/or out of proper order. I thought I'd find it somewhere else, but alas, I never did. But in looking up Dark Benediction, I am wondering if the collection Eight Strange Tales, edited by Vic Ghidalia is the one I had...since a Ray Bradbury story precedes the one I was asking about, and that's probably why I thought of Bradbury. Could you tell me what Bradbury's Subterfuge is about?

Ha, H. G. Wells didn't even know what french fries were. If people wanted to get fried back then, they went for opium.

Yes, I was 99% sure that was the story, and the collection, you were thinking of; I was just waiting for you to say it. I bought one when I was ordering any paperback with Bradbury's name on it, and in 25 years only ever happened across one other copy, but there seem to be 70 for sale online, starting at reasonable prices: http://used.addall.com/SuperRare/submitRare.cgi?author=Ghidalia&title=E ight+Strange+Tales&keyword=&isbn
(The entire URL is huge so hope this much of it works for you. It did for me just now.)

"Subterfuge" is about a desperate plan hatched by the people of Earth as the people of Venus launch a takeover. One of Ray's early, and rare, SF stories, only the second book appearance for this one.

[This message has been edited by dandelion (edited 03-31-2004).]