Lightning

This has to be the best book ever written. You will not be able to put it down.

Lightning is a great book. I read it over 20 years ago for the first time and was surprised how much I remembered on the reread I completed today - that's a sign that an author has something special. The story centers on the life of Laura Shane, from her beginnings as a young girl, a teenager in the foster system and finally her life as a successful author with her husband and son. Throughout her life, a mysterious man shows up and intervenes several times in bad situations that could result in her death, only to save her and vanish just as quickly. She comes to think of him as her guardian angel and this forms the crux of the story.The characters here are top notch. Laura and her family are easy to root for. Thelma is one of the funniest characters I've read in some time and Stefan is brilliant as a man trying to atone for his past mistakes. Although the revelation of his origins is a little far fetched, it worked for me. If you've never read Koontz before, this is a great example of his talents. Give it a shot!

I enjoyed the story very much, but I do have a question regarding the rules of time travel in the book and how the book seems to disregard the very rules it set up. I'm probably not understanding something. Anyway, here's my questions:Time travel obviously plays an integral part of the story. One of the main rules of time travel the book lays out is that a paradox is not allowed. It then goes on to give examples of what is not allowed. They say that one cannot travel forward in time and back again then travel forward in time again to a point before the previous time such that you might see yourself appear. Let me offer two examples. One was at the end when Laura and her son are in the desert and Stefan travels back to his own time, then forward again 5 minutes after he left. When he comes back 5 minutes later, Laura is already shot in the back and her son is dead. He then goes back to his own time and tries to travel ahead to stop the shootings. When he tries to adjust to reappear 4 minutes since he originally left (since he can't travel to a point prior to when he last left), he realizes he can't since it would cause a paradox because he would see himself appear 1 minute after that, so he send the note in the bottle since the note and bottle did not previously travel and would not cauise a paradox.Second example is when Laura's husband is killed on the road. Stefan says he can't travel to a point before to stop the murder because he's already traveled to a point after that. It would cause another paradox.My question is that if that rules exists, how does 1 person do more than 1 jaunt? How does Stefan repeatedly save Laura? He supposedly travels into her future to see what happens, then goes back and makes changes. But doesn't that violate the rule already established? Once he travels ahead to see her future, he shouldn't be able to travel again to any point prior to that jump. Because if he were to stay in that timeline, he could see himself pop into existence in the future when he made his first jump to check Laura's future. Same goes for the hits squads who are tracking them. Same idea.Also, if they have such trouble pinpointing a time and place when they travel (they end up miles away from their intended spot) and they've made all of these jaunts, how have they never materialized in a wall or a tree or a rock, or another person? Seems like if they couldn't pinpoint their location exactly,then they would run into these problems.Okay, tell me how stupid I am, and GO!

I really was on the edge of my seat with most of the book. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was a personal issue. It was unbelievable. I stopped reading Dean Koontz books because of that. I really liked the suspense and not knowing what was next. I especially was intrigued by the start with the alcoholic physician and how Stefan stopped him from going drunk to perform the delivery. That alone kept me reading. Some very sad parts but showed the strength of Laura. It really was a good read.

VERY difficult to read Koontz's Watchers and then go to another one of his earlier books and be just as thrilled. But, it's true though.The idea for the story was good but I was absolutely shocked at the typos allowed to stay. There was a parenthesis mark where a small "l" should have been. Right in the middle of the word. Lol How an editor missed that one, I'll never know. There were many other mistakes as well.The biggest thing, very hard to swallow, was the main character Laura, was a first time writer who submitted her first book with an agent. The book never explains HOW she even got an agent in the first place. That's extremely difficult in of itself.It was a bit far-fetched when she (Laura) was immediately successful with her first book and got a fifteen grand advance. I could have lived with that I suppose if Dean hadn't stepped out of reality.Each and every time Laura wrote a new book, Dean would say "And, this book was even more successful then her last). I thought WHAT? Laura would also receive over one million for a bidding auction with 8 publishing houses. Within just a few chapters and a very short period of time, Laura had written many books with Koontz saying the same thing over and over again that this book turned out even more fabulous than the last one. Just doesn't happen. Most people, (authors, singers, actors) work their butt off for years before MAYBE making it big. The percentage of huge successful writing careers, making it to the top of the best sellers list is like hitting the lottery. That analogy came from actual figures. There are a great deal of amazing singers, actors and authors out there that never get anywhere. Laura's immediate success and wealth was way over the top. This bugged me the most.Unless you're one out of a gazillion people, life just doesn't happen that way and I found that part really hard to believe. Being #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List is extremely hard to achieve and Dean made this line of work seem much too effortless like anyone could easily do it.I liked her hard life and how she was able to provide for herself by working hard at it. I hated that she lost her husband who was a great man. The guardian angel thing was odd though because I'd never do what Laura did and just let his visits come and go without demanding an explanation. I may even have shot him dead. Lol Too weird.About 57% through the kindle version, Laura's son is explaining examples of paradox's to her. I caught Dean repeating himself. Laura the mother asks her son... Why couldn't the men set the time travel for earlier in the evening at the house BEFORE her guardian came to warn her? Then, less then two pages later during the same conversation, Laura asks her son the exact same question again, even though her son had already answered her the first time around. Lol This was a mistake that Mr. Koontz did not catch.Other reviews state the second half of this book was one loooooooooooooooooooooooong chase. I completely agree. You know? With a little work, this story could have actually ended half way through. In my opinion, the story (book) had pretty much concluded itself once Laura put the guardian in the back of her jeep and drove off. With maybe 2 or three more chapters, Dean could have wrapped up this book and have been done with it. Using nearly 50% of a book for a cat and mouse game was silly.Like Watchers, I had done some homework to find out which book of Deans that customers like the best and Lightening was on the list of top 10. I almost chose a different one and kinda wish I had.All in all this wasn't bad, it was just hard to believe and held and contained way too many typos and mistakes to be considered a professional Dean Koontz book.

Completely different from other authors and from Koontz himself. The story runs pell-mell through the life of Laura Shane and finishes in a very satisfying manner. I actually set it down for a day to make it last longer.

i spent most of my teen years reading steven king. Koontz never really appeared on my radar bcos he didnt always rite horror and if it wasnt horror i wasnt interested.the first Koontz book i read was phantoms, bcos i loved the film. But, (and im ahamed to admit) i went back to King and Laymon.Now im an adult and as all adults i have a budget. So after coming back to King to reread some books i was shocked to find hes charging over £6.99 for all his classics.pfft, no way. But there below him was Lightening and for 99p! Realised it was Koontz and thise old doubts came rising up. i pushed them aside and dived in.very glad i did! I have really enjoyed this novel and read it quickly.i have a few niggles with it. its annoying that her beauty is always given as a reason to save her etc. and i wondered about a few of the instances which would have brought on a paradox. Such as the nazis killing the policeman who would have arrested her and her son. if they killed him he would not have made the report and so the nazis would not know where she was. maybe i misread though, bcos ultimately the author was pretty on the ball with the paradoxes.I enjoyed his afterword as well and showed me i shouldnt be worried about readingv his stories.which i will.i must thank the author for not charging so very much for his books. i love to read. i get through books so fast that i cant afford to keep up my hobbie sometimes. Youve given us a wonderful gift and you have shown fans are more important than money. thank you x

I liked the concept of this novel very much and for the first part, I found it enjoyable. Unfortunately, about half way through it became quite boring and I found myself wandering off while trying to finish it. The rest of the book just seemed to be going on and on, quite vaguely about the Nazis with no factual or interesting content, which was unexpected. What really shocked me was the apparent heralding of 'Winston Churchill' who was responsible for the deaths of millions of German people. He was actually quoted as saying he didn't care about Hitler, he just wanted to kill the Germans. Churchill was no hero. DK vaguely talks of atrocities without bothering to give other historical content or details. It's like he glimpsed over it with a quick look at Wiki. It seemed more like a personal view point rather than a proper explanation. The British forces didn't want to carry out the atrocities over Dresden for example because they could see that their ruthless bombings were literally melting human beings onto the streets. The soviet camp comparison was vague also, saying that they were as bad as the Nazis camps. Has DK done his research and seen what happened in the gulags, on the island where people ate each other in their mad desparation? Does he know how the Americans put up posters of the Japanese mocking their appearance and how they were treated once captured? Does anyone know how the Uyigars are treated today? How the Chinese are treated today? How the organ harvesting is so successful? It really annoys me when only one leader is called out and other leaders are appraised when they were in fact genocidal monsters. It undermines the suffering of the victims of these evil lunatics. It still goes on.

I first read this book 32 years ago, when I was 10 years old. I have lost count of how many times I have read it now.Dean Koontz has always been one of my favourite authors and this was one of the first of his books that I read around the same time (the others included Midnight, The Eyes of Twilight and Watchers). Picking up one of his books is like a welcome visit from a very much loved friend.

A rare foray by Koontz into sci-fi. I first read this book when it came out years ago and over time (and hundreds of other books) I sort of forgot the intricacies of the novel and decide to re-visit courtesy of the Amazon service. I'm glad I did because it's a well written yarn with mostly likeable characters and a terrific twist or two - well worth a read and it stays on my book shelf this time.

I have to be honest I nearly gave up after the first 100 pages, I struggled to get my head around what was happening, two different stories and I couldn't get the connection, I'm glad I persevered because it all comes together with a flash and a bang. Then as things become clear you realise the possibilities are endless, so there is no way you can predict what will happen. If you've a taste for the unusual and consider most things are possible, give lightening a go. I really enjoyed the story and how it makes you think in a way that opens up many avenues of thought, you can keep on guessing but you never know how it's going to end until you get there! Well worth the read.