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Summary: ONE OF THE BEST KOONTZ!!!! BRILLIANT!!!
Review: This one is definitely in the upper echelon of Koontz!!! I can't recommend this one highly enough! He has several that are really over the top, even for him! Truly outstanding! I almost cried when this book ended, I was so disappointed!! I wish it had been 3000 pages! The plot in this one was a departure from his "usual" (if you can really find a "usual" with him)!! The characters in this one were, I think, the most developed that I've seen in any of his books. This was one of the most satisying novels I have ever read. This one had supernatural (of the science fiction type) and suspense and excitement. It's up there with "One Door Away from Heaven" and "Strangers" and "Watchers." I don't like to give a synopsis for his books; I don't want to spoil anything. One of the best reads ever!!!
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Summary: One of His Best
Review: Lots of suspense, emotional ups and downs, great characters(!), one of the best "time machine" stories I have read, and one of Koontz's best books. I am sorry I skipped it when it came out.
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Summary: The best book ever
Review: This thriller is one of the best pieces of work Dean Koontz has ever mastered. It keeps your eyes glued to the pages and fliping as fast as you can.
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Summary: Old reliable Koontz delivers again
Review: Koontz is one of the undisputed masters of page-turning, finger-blistering, runaway train on a greased up track storytelling. This novel is now one of my favorites.Our tale starts off with a flash of lightning - literally. A doctor, drinking his scotch, gets a phone call from the hospital informing him that he needs to hurry up and assist in delivering a baby. He's too drunk to perform his duties, but of course he doesn't tell the hospital that... on the way out the door, a man hustles him back into the house, tying the doctor up and preventing him from getting to the hospital. Flash forward several years, and meet a young girl and her father who run a small convenience store. Lightning flashes again, and soon they two of them are being held up at gunpoint by a robber. Suddenly, a man appears and thwarts the robbery attempt. He isn't nice about it, but seems happy that the child is safe. He leaves, instructing the store owner to not mention that he was ever there. Twice now, this mysterious person has appeared out of nowhere, and twice has been instrumental in protecting the girl. After another incident years later, the girl starts to regard him as her Guardian Angel. But is that all there is to it? After all, this man never seems to change his appearance, and doesn't seem to age... That's enough plot spoilers. The real joy of a book like "Lightning" lies in the skilled cliffhangers, the sharp descriptions of action, the believable characters, the fun of having the rug yanked out from under you, and the thrill of being taken for a ride with no idea how it's all going to work out. When the plot is revealed in "Lightning" about 2/3 of the way through, it's just as exciting as the book's beginnings. Some people have complained about Koontz. They say all his novels are the same, the characters are the same, and the plots unravel in similar ways. I agree with a lot of that. I also don't care. I never feel his novels are predictable, this one especially. In my opinion, the "sameness" attributed to Koontz can just as easily be identified as a writing STYLE unique to him. "Lightning" has all the ingredients that work for me as a reader. Action, suspense, mystery, horror, science fiction, and a style and pace that kept me riveted to my seat. This is among the best Koontz had to offer in the 80s, and stands up well against his more recent (and better IMO) works.
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Summary: Great Read
Review: I throughly enjoyed this book!There is a bit of sci-fi to it but it worked well with the plot. Defintely worth reading!!!
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Summary: No matter what the date is today you should buy this
Review: Laura Shane's life is not easy. At different points in her life horrendous crimes against her seem inevitable but a guardian angel named Stefan appears, intervenes and saves the day before disappearing. Terminator style time travellers (humans not robots) are sent through time to kill her and her son and she does not know why. Stefan has his reasons for intervening in her life and protecting her but can he protect her from these killers? This is one of the best Koontz novels out there. Koontz deals with paradoxes and other aspects of time travel that if he hadn't would have put holes in his story. This is a great read. You should buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Great until the midpoint...
Review: It's been a long time since I've felt so emotionally invested in a character from a novel. Yet, I was completely enchanted with Laura Shane, the protagonist in Dean Koontz' Lightning. I cheered when she triumped and despaired when she faltered. But something happened during the second half of the novel. As Koontz peeled back the layers of mystery surrounding Stefan, the "guardian angel" that kept reappearing in Laura's life when she was in mortal danger, I became disinterested. Part of the problem was Koontz' bad habit of overexplaining plot points to the point of tedium. After Stefan's final appearance near page 200, Koontz seemed to be writing on autopilot, forgetting about his characters and letting the plot take center stage. It's as if Koontz ran out of ideas. In fact, the second half of the novel seemed to borrow a lot from The Servants of Twilight in which a mother and her son must go on the lam from baddies under the protection of the alpha male leading to the eventual showdown in an outdoor setting. What a shame since the first half of the novel was so well written and captivating. Nevertheless, I mostly enjoyed the book and would grudgingly recommend it.
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Summary: First Koontz experience
Review: This is the first book by Dean Koontz that I've read. While it's plain Koontz is not the most talented writer in the world, he knows (at least in this book) how to create a thrilling atmosphere, using ideas from different sets of backgrounds. In "Lightning" we have a thriller mixed with sci-fi and politics. Laura Shane is the main character of the story. Her life is constantly in danger from the moment of her birth; on all dangerous occasions, a misterious guardian appears out of the blue, followed by intense lightning and sounds of thunder, and manages to save her life. This is just an initial outline of the story, but it was this little outline that got me hooked and made me buy the book. Its first half is about Laura's life, until she's over thirty years-old. In the middle of the book, we are told who the guardian really is, and where he comes from. From then on, "Lightning" becomes a pursuit thriller, and that's when we see Koontz's ability to deliver a fast-paced tale. One of the editorial reviews say that once the "mistery" is revealed, the narrative runs out of ideas. I don't think so. In fact, I thought the second half of the book was much better than the first. As many reviewers have stated, the characters in this book are not that well developed, and some of them are really annoying. The lines of Laura's seven-year-old son, for example, are completely absurd for someone that young, and some of the dialogue is too far-fetched. Otherwise, if you don't pay attention to that kind of detail, and if you like fast page-turners, I think there's no way not to like "Lightning". It will not stik to your mind long after you turn the last page, but while you're reading it you'll enjoy. Grade 8.6/10
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Summary: Too good to put down.
Review: As a beginning reader of Dean Koontz, it proved to be a lure to the other works of Dean Koontz. Lightning carried his wittiness, his sytle, his voice and is a very nice book for people who are new to him, like myself, and to those who've been fans of his for a while. I strongly recommend this novel to anyone.
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Summary: eh?
Review: i no longer remember why i read this. koontz always seem to have a sort of sentimentality which is more likely to touch my stomach than my heart. i actually enjoy sentimentality, but this is way too naive. as a result i was pretty nauseated. the plot seem rather pointless to me. koontz' characters for some reason always disgust me. they are too naive, too kind, too sentimental, too trusting, or whatever. they are always way overdone. why should we believe the ending? and our hero is not really a hero to me. what's up with this annoying dwelling of his? the plot is only believable if you believe that nazi Germany had lots of incredibly stupid leaders.
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