Years ago, my sister introduced me to horror/thriller/sci-fi writer Dan Simmons. At that time, we both read a book that featured a soldier, who was a ghost, or a demon, or something like that. At any rate, he was dead.
We both thought, early on in the novel, that the dead soldier was actually one of the good guys. Turned out not to be true-the dead soldier was a bad guy.
But now, many years later, she lives with me. She claims the ‘dead-soldier-ghost-who-seems-to-be-a-good-guy-but-is-actually-a-bad-guy’ is from a Dean Koontz novel called Lightning.
I’m not buying it, though (unless I’m proven wrong by the Dopers). I still think it was a Dan Simmons novel.
Dan Simmons novel SUMMER OF NIGHT features a dead ghost soldier from World War I that is seemingly neutral or possibly good that turns out to be part of the evil.
The plot involves an old-school set in 1960 and features five young boys that figure out the bad goings-on and fight it.
He has also written a short story or two (actually, novellas) that feature soldiers…
“Iversen’s Pits”– a civil war story that features dead soldiers.
“The Great Lover”– another tale involving World War I, a great story, one of his best.
Yep - that’s it. One of those books where the first, say, third is really scary and works really well, and then you actually have to show the monster at the end and it’s kind of meh.
Color me embarrassed. I read Summer of Night when it first came out (and the sequel more recently) and would have sworn there was no ghost soldier. Shit. Guess I ain’t that much of a fan after all.
