(Probably Found) Searching 50's sci-fi novel

[space cadet]

Searching for a '50's novel very dimly remembered. I think there was a meteor in the US Midwest which creates an expanding desolate landscape consisting of a malleable pink substance in which forms develop. Maybe it was just a dream but it has haunted me for years.

 

[Banshay]

It's 1980s, but maybe the Chtorr series by David Gerrold?

 

[space cadet]

Thanks for responding, but that's not it. The Chtorr series sounds fascinating, though. Worth reading?

 

[Banshay]

It's been 25 years or so since I've read the series and I think Gerrold has been promising to finish the series for almost that long, but I recall it being pretty good. The emphasis was on the invasive ecology of the Chtorr which I think was assumed to be hostile terraforming. I think much of it was reddish or pinkish, which is why I thought of it from your description.

 

[Justin_Case83]

Perhaps that's what the Movie : Evolution - was based on

a meteor lands in an underground cavern. A Professor investigates, taking a sample of strange blue liquid that oozes from it, only to discover that it harbors extraterrestrial single-celled nitrogen-based organisms multiplying exponentially, condensing millions of years of evolution within minutes. The next day, the meteor is already surrounded by evolved oxygen-converting fungi and alien flatworms, later discovering the cells and organisms reproduce rapidly through mitosis.

 

[CassFrank]

This is certainly Manly Wade Wellman’s Giants From Eternity (50s). It involves a meteor releasing a “blight” that is pink and blob like and spreads rapidly across the US Midwest. It also revives the dead.

 

[Pyan]

Unlikely as it may sound, the OP may actually check this sometime - the longest gap between the original query and the confirmation of the title stands at eleven years. I'll mark this as Probably Found.

 

[Ravensquawk]

Or maybe 15 years right here!

 

[Pyan]

You see? it's so long ago that even Great Old Ones forget! 15 years, not 11...