The vampire in the concentration camp and other stories you can't remember

[Trollkien]

Okay, the purpose of this thread is absurdly simple. We've all at one time or the other, read a short story/novel that's impacted us greatly but for whatever reason, failed to note/forgot who wrote it or even what it was called. Which effectively means you cannot buy more by the same author or track the story down easily if you'd like to give it another shot. Here are a few of the plotlines I would give a lot to know more about — any help would be appreciated.

1. An inmate at a concentration camp notes on his arival that the entire place is held together by one guy who is always rallying around people and keeping their spirits up. He's naturally drawn to this very charismatic person and incredibly grateful for the hope he brings to the others...except one night, when he wakes to find the good samaritan of the camp sucking a weaker inmate's blood.
The vampire realises he's been discovered and tries to reason with the man, speaking of how he only preys on people who are in any case worked to the point of death, but our protagonist is too horrified to be convinced. After that, he dare no longer sleep nights, and is constantly being beaten by the Nazis for slacking off at work through the day — all of which makes him weaker and weaker...I have NO idea how this story ends.

2. A couple of men are holed up in this observatory that's plumb in the middle of a marsh surrounded by a totally deathly silence — waiting for a transmission of some sort which is supposed to be the word of God or something very similar. They bicker at a crucial juncture and fail to hear the word...and realise its been spoken aloud when they hear the normal marsh sounds petering in.

3. On reading of a very brutal murder, a man has a sudden very vivid memory of having perpeterated the crime. In tears, he surrenders himself at the nearest police station. Except that the cops find that he has a rock solid alibi for the time the crime was committed. The spate of murders continue and our heros memories of them get increasingly intricate and he insists he be arrested everytime — finally after a particularly gruesome description/crime he shows up at the police station again and the chief cop says "Oh its you again? Listen this had better stop or one of us is going to go completely insane..." That's how it ends.

Feel free to post outlines of stuff you've been looking for.

 

[Quokka]

Sorry I can't help you with those ones Trollkien. One of the first sci fi books i remember reading was a Quartet centred around a character that was out in deep space when the world (or worlds) was destroyed for some reason, I think he may have been a soldier in a fighterplane style spaceship at the time.

Although he wasn't killed, he was close enough to be affected by the radiation and eventually had his whole skeletal structure replaced with some unbreakable metal aka wolverine.

I'd say this one was young adult and not the most origional storyline but it'd be fun to track it down.

 

[Thunderchild]

the first sci fi book i remember is one my 1st grade teacher read to the class. It was about a boy and his father who crash land on a planet and have to escape from a whole heap of monster creatures. When they are rescued it turns out they where on a planet being used as a hunting park.

 

[chrispenycate]

I know that I've not merely read the concentration camp one, but have it in my bookshelves somewhere (I know it should be "on" bookshelves, but mine are topologically improbable) If I could merely work out which book it was in…

 

[dwndrgn]

The one about the man who has memories of the murders sounds suspiciously like the plot of an upcoming movie that I believe is based on a book. I"ll have to see if I can find it.

No clue on the others.

Anyone remember a YA story about a girl who meets an old lady who is a witch who takes a 'daily constitutional' (her daily walk) and has a tatty feline named Greymalkin or something similar? I read this one so long ago it is mixed up with another story I can't recall the provenance of which is about a cat who can dance a hornpipe...

 

[weaveworld]

Is it this maybe?

The Other Side of the Mirror by Alan David Price

 

[Trollkien]

I know that I've not merely read the concentration camp one, but have it in my bookshelves somewhere (I know it should be "on" bookshelves, but mine are topologically improbable) If I could merely work out which book it was in…

Ah yes I have the same problem. I've looked in all the usual horror and vampire anthologies (oh which I have an uncomfortably large number) but no luck so far. Do you by any chance remember how it all ends?

 

[Quokka]

Is the Vampire story Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann's Down Among the Dead Men?

I actually found that one that had been bugging me. I kept thinking it was the last centurian turns out I was close The Last Legionary Quartet by Douglas Hill. And it looks like it was your fairly standard 80's YA sci-fi.... I wonder If e-bay has a copy

 

[Trollkien]

AWESOME! Thanks ever so much, Quokka! I googled and discovered which anthology the story features in — I owe you one.

 

[Quokka]

Your welcome, I hadn't read the story, just thought Id have a google whilst looking for that other one but it looks interesting particularly in the Anthology The Fiction Factory. So you can finaly see how it ends and Ive a new bunch of story's/authors to check out so it's all good

 

[the_faery_queen]

there was a book i read as a kid, really scared me (may have been short story) about a woman who had been bullied at school who now worked in a fairground and killed people who looked just like those who bullied her. what i remember most was the boy getting on a horror ride and his friend decided to get off in the middle and play a trick on another friend of theirs. so the first boy and the other friend went on the ride again, but was no sign of the other friend who had gotten off. so first friend went around again, and this time he found his friend, dead, and a tombstone with a message on it to him.

then when he got the police, the body was just a waxwork and his friend was never found again. i remember that really vividly.