Book Review: Lightning by Dean R. Koontz

Many people have put Lightning in a class by itself. And, I’m one of those people.

Lightning encapsulated all of the traits which mark Dean Koontz books such a treat to read. Lightning begins quickly, engaging the reader from the first page. The images Koontz paints with his prose are striking. And, with Lightning having an extremely complicated story line, it is fascinating the way he keeps the myriad details straight, and in order. I imagined Koontz as having a huge story board in front of his desk. On that board, he has every detail written and colored arrows going from that detail to every other detail. I was, and still am, amazed with the details.

The essence of the Lightning story line is that a woman has a guardian angel who watches over her from the moment of her birth. Each appearance of this protector coincides with a very strange storm and heaven-splitting bolts of lightning.

Who is the stranger? How does this strange guardian fit into the story? I don’t want to tell too much more, and risk giving away any of the sheer joy the reader may have from reading the story.

Just let me tell you that Lightning is one of the special books that when I finished reading it, I was sad. I wanted to have the dream of the story keep going. It was that enjoyable. The characters are real and well developed. The storyline is intriguing, with a pace that grabs the reader from page one. The dialogue is deeply intriguing. And the science fiction is mind boggling.

By – William K.