Too often in books involving time travel, the hero or heroine travels back to change something bad about his or her life, or one of their friends or relatives lives. In this case, our heroine, Laura Shane has no idea until two-thirds of the way through the book what has been happening to her.
On the night in 1955 that Laura is born there is an unusual snowstorm that produces thunder and lightning. From then on, whenever lightning strikes, life-changing events seem to happen, and a mysterious blond-haired man appears.
Laura calls him her guardian, and looks to him with a hero-worship that only a child can have. Afraid to tell anyone else about him, he is her deepest secret through a lifetime of pain. Her mother dies in childbirth, she and her father are almost killed when his small grocery store is robbed, her father dies of a heart-attack, and she becomes the target of a sexual predator at the orphanage she is sent to - who eventually kills a dear woman who becomes Laura's foster-mother.
It seems as though Laura has more than her fair share of adverse times in her life, but she always sees signs that her guardian has been here to help or support her. Sometimes he appears directly to her, while at others she just knows he has been there and taken care of things for her.
Things look up for her for a long time. She meets a wonderful man who will become her husband, begins a very successful career as a writer, and gives birth to a son. This time, however, when her guardian returns, it is with disastrous results on her family. Laura must summon up all of the courage and toughness she learned being subjected to so much adversity to pull herself and what is left of her family through.
**spoiler***
For her guardian is no angel at all, rather a man traveling through time who met the first person Laura was during one of his travels and immediately fell in love with her spirit and her. Stefan Krieger is not traveling to the past from the future, but to the future from the past. He is on the run from some very dangerous men who are out to kill both him and now Laura.
***end spoiler***
The twists and turns in this book roped me in and kept me hanging the first time I read this book. Even now, after having read it more times than I can remember, the book is a great read. To me, it is definitely Koontz' finest, and is one book I'm glad has never been made into a movie, since I don't think any movie could do this book justice.
Koontz' strength in writing is his ability to write strong, believable lead characters. He succeeds totally here with Laura and Stefan. They are so well-developed and written with such a hard edge that I felt like I was really watching the two of them as their lives converged again and again.
The weakness in many of Koontz' books is his secondary characters and that is no different here, but to a lesser degree. Laura's husband Danny is written very well, as is her son, Chris. The miss comes especially with Thelma Ackerman who seems to come off as an exact replica of Sandra Bernhard in many ways. A definite weak spot in the novel comes any time they draw her in. A little more attention to details about her could've turned her into a much better supporting character.
Another minus is Kokoschka who comes off as a typical bad guy with a grudge against the good guy. He is doing his job by coming after Stefan, but a big part of the situation is that he is intensely jealous of Stefan. His hatred is believable, as we see him shadowing Stefan in Laura's life, trying to figure out why she is important in the scope of history.
The time travel works in this book, even if it does become a bit confusing at times. All of the back and forth between Laura's time and Stefan's can get confusing, as well as the changes they are making. It is a fun read as I felt as if I were being dragged along with them for the ride.
A problem of many of Koontz' books is that he wraps the endings up too nice and neat. I didn't feel that at the end of this book. History has been changed, for better or worse. It seems to be better, but do we really know that for sure?
It is rumored that all of Koontz' books in some way tie together and I am interested if Lightning fits into that plan as well. Only time will tell.
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