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Summary: Battling the Storm
Review: On a night which tore at the ravenous skies, the new Laura Shane is to be born of her parents, Laura and Bob Shane. The labor is troublesome and the effort to save her mother fails. The young Laura is safe and healthy, and still has a father who loves her more than all the world. We are also made aware of her guardian Stephan, and his enemy, Kokoshka, who despises Laura and Stephen alike. This enemy's purpose is to find out why Laura is so important, and kill them both. We are then introduced to different stages in Laura's life. When she is about seven, she and her father face death in their Californian market, and she lives with Stephan's help. Her father however, isn't so lucky as to escape death. She is sent from home to home along the way and faces many deaths of those she grew to let herself love. She gets herself through school and becomes an author. Laura and her husband, Danny also have one baby boy, and name him Christopher. Yet now that everything is perfect, or at least normal, she and her family face a horrible death. Their only hope is Stephan's attempt to save their lives, but will he succeed? This was an excellent piece of literature, as it was never boring. It depicts the reality of how a child experiences death, and can over come abuse. This selection inspired me to read, and kept me interested through out the book. It is my recommendation to anyone who enjoys a good book to discover "Lightning" as well as other selections by Dean R. Koontz.
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Summary: Koontz at his Best
Review: This is the best novel from Dean Koontz, and he has written so many. Most range from fair to good, but many are boring, silly and juvenile. If you pick this novel to read first, you will probably be let down by most of his other work. But definitely give him a chance with this one, even if you've hated his others. 'Lightning' is very good and worth a read (or two or three, in my case).The story's shining light is the main character of Laura Shane. We start out with her birth, follow her through her terrible childhood, and finish with her adult years. She is a thoroughly drawn character, from start to finish, and you won't regret spending time getting so into her life. A mysterious "guardian angel" shows up at all important points in her path, and the reasons behind this soon become clear. The plot has many twists and turns, dark moments, sadness and joy. All of the characters are written so well, from Laura's beloved father, to her husband Danny and son Chris, to her hilarious best friend Thelma, to the mysterious stranger, that we just end up loving them all. The action is tight and involving, the poignant moments of girlhood and life-long friendship and love are touching and the ending is satisfying. Koontz has not done anything before or since as well as he does 'Lightning'. A completely entertaining and exciting read, you won't want to put it down until you're done. And then you are left wanting more. If all his books were this good, he'd be my favorite author. Unfortunately, his other novels pale in comparison. Try this and enjoy it. There's not much more like it in his collection.
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Summary: Lightning is one of my favorite Koontz novels to date!
Review: After a friend handed me Koontz's novel, Lightning, I simply couldn't put it down. It kept me in suspense throughout. It is definitely as 'keeper' as I will continue to pick this novel up again for numerous read overs. I think Koontz should adapt this one to a movie in the near future!
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Summary: Be careful of Koontz...
Review: Upon discovering the author Dean Koontz, an initial reaction for many people is, "Wow, he's written a ton of books!" That he has. It is also very noteworthy to mention that he has written a ton of trash. I've read perhaps 30 novels by this man, and can count of one hand how many of them I consider to be worth the paper they were printed on. Why do I keep reading? Great beach novels, I suppose. Lightning is an example of the glory Koontz is capable of. This book displays the strongest character development and best love story he ever produced. There are certainly times were it drags; I'm of the opinion there's always about 30 to 50 pages of a good Koontz novel that could be removed, but the book as a whole is a great read. Lightning is second only to Watchers. I'm also fond of Servants of Twilight, Twilight Eyes and Darkfall. Second tier Koontz books are Shadowfires, The Bad Place, Dark Rivers of the Heart and Strangers. Every other Koontz book ranges from insipid to sickeningly bad.
Rating: 
Summary: A surprising disappointment
Review: This was my first Dean Koontz book--and will probably be my last. It was recommended to me by one of his millions of fans. I was mildly curious at first, but the book quickly became childish. The only thing that kept a tiny bit of my interest was the main character's evolving writing career. The whole time-travel debacle wasn't worthy of print. I found Koontz's characters shallow attempts to imitate the interesting and believable people you find in a better horror story--like any of Stephen King's.
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Summary: Dean Koontz's Major High Point
Review: Yeah, yeah, some of the characters in Lightning were a little hard to fathom, and they seemed to be just too lucky, too many times. But...this is a wonderful story, with time travel at the heart of it. Usually, time travel stories don't really get me, and I don't want to read them. But a lot of people recommended this book to me, and I thank them wholeheartedly for doing so. This story is about Laura Shane, who all through her life, has seemed to have had a "guardian angel". No matter what awful situation she has been in, a mysterious stranger has saved her, starting with the stormy night she was born, when he stopped a drunk doctor from delivering her. Through most of the book, you are left wondering, who is this man? Why does he follow Laura? When his reasoning is discovered, it is a wonderful reason, and just makes the book all that much better. This book is just different from other books. It has more "meat" to it. You can really tell when an author puts a lot of time and effort into a book, and this is one of them. Dean Koontz never fails to intrigue, scare, or just plain terrify readers, but in this book he will enthrall you. Until the very last page, you are hooked to this story of a woman's struggles in life and the man who is desperate to save her, though it could put him in grave danger. This is a must read, pick it up fast! I wish I could tell everyone to read this book, but those of you who are reading this review, read Lightning, it has fast become one of my favorites of all time!
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Summary: Simply The Best
Review: I have read all but a few of Koontz' books. This is the best. Definitely a good starting point to get to know Mr. Koontz. I have met and corresponded with him on a few occasions and find him a very gracious and soft-spoken gentleman who is very good to his fans. Check it out. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.
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Summary: What are those editors talking about???
Review: I don't know about those editorial reviews above...but I will say this...Lightning is one of the best Koontz books ever written! It is fast paced, engrossing and heart-wrenching. I loved every minute of it. I read it years ago as a teenager, then again as a married mother. This is one of Koontz's best books because it's not bogged down in over-fleshed characters and superfluous descriptions. I had great sympathy for the protagonists, and literally felt my heart racing as I read it. A good read...I guarantee! Smooches!
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Summary: Fantastic
Review: This is the first Koontz novel I have read, and I must say that I am positively impressed. Before I was finished reading "Lightning" I was browsing through a bargain book store and came across a hardcover of "Intensity" for only $8. Now that I'm finished with the book I'm still happy about my purchase and looking forward to starting it. I didn't really know this book was going to be sci-fi. The only part I knew was about a girl who has a guardian angel that appears from time to time to save her life. The time travel aspect was neat, and I'm glad Koontz didn't give it anymore sci-fi than that, else the book may have been overloaded. This book has a nice balance to it, it's never hard to follow and never boring. Some of the time travel explanations are a bit tricky, but the mind-boggling is what's part of the fun. What I didn't like about the book was the dialogue. It wasn't bad, but unrealistic. There are characters we see develop from childhood to near middle-age. And if you randomly sample their words you'd have no idea whether they were preteens or in their thirties - it all sounds the same. And that goes for Chris too, have you ever heard an 8 year old talk like that? I can swallow brilliant boys and girls or even a child prodigy, but these kids have wisdom too. Although a minor technicality, there is a problem with these "jaunts" that the time travellers go on. The book explains how in the present day of the travellers that there are no computers that can pinpoint the exact time and location when jaunted into the future, which is fine, but the book provides us with the convenient setting of the mountains of southern California, so that if you're a few hundred yards away from your destination you're still in somewhat of a rural area. What if you were being jaunted near the city and you ended up on a busy street, materializing in front of a Mack truck just seconds before it plows into you? Surely all of their jaunts didn't have woods nearby to plot and plan before you jumped in to the real action. But I fear I am being too critical now. This book is very satisfying, it makes us care about the main characters and want destruction for the bad guys. The ending does fall into an action cliche, but I have to believe that the events portrayed in the book could reasonably lead to this type of split-second showdown, so I deemed it excusable. Dean Koontz has basically hooked me into reading more and more of what he has to offer. And seeing that he is the author of dozens of books, it looks like I have quite a bit of catching up to do.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Koontz books!
Review: I read this book a long time ago and I still recommend it to friends who've never read Koontz; they always get hooked. I re-read it every so often when I find myself sadly bookless. I thought this was his best book ever until I read Fear Nothing and Seize the Night (I can't wait for the third Christopher Snow book!). I highly recommend Lightning.
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