Space Plague

The Space Plague was written by George O. Smith and published in 1956.   It reads like 1956, as in it's dated as hell, but in the best way.... It's a pretty good pulp yarn about a disease from outer space that either kills you or turns you into a superman; it's very Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with some veiled political content probably having something to do with some 1950's conception of an anti-communist underground railroad, but it mostly reads like a hard boiled 50's X-files.  Telepathy (Mind reading) and E.S.P. (Extra Sensory Perception) are also convincingly explored here.  This was a good clean fun read, and with prose like:

"Nurse Farrow made a wry face as though she'd just discovered that the stuff she had in her mouth was a ball of wooly centipedes..."

Man, the wooly is what seperates good writing from great, and I'd have to say that this book really needs a sequel, especially with some serious-ish content sprinkled in there like:

"The entire human race is lambasted by one form of propaganda or another from the time the infant  learns to sit up until the elderly lays down and dies.  We're all guilty of loose thinking...."

Blah, blah, blah, it goes on, and it's all over the place pulp.  1956.  Not quite all there; pretty vital, not essential, but still kinda neat.  And the cover design is a real winner!  Viva sci-fi pulp!