Lightning
Dean Koontz

Spirited Laura Shane lives a life whose escapes and rewards are inevitably weighed against the reckoning of a mysterious and fearsome creditor. Her existence is marked by crisis, from the hour of her birth on a stormy January night in 1955 when "there was a strangeness about the weather that people would remember for years." She narrowly escapes death as a stranger materializes out of the blizzard to guard her from the not so tender mercies of a drunken doctor and ensure her safe passage into the world.
The years go by, and ever more terrifying troubles plague her, but with increasing strength and courage Laura prevails - often with the almost miraculous involvement of the same stranger. She marries and becomes a mother, but cannot shake the growing certainty that powerful forces are controlling her destiny. To what end? Is the stranger the guardian angel that he seems - or a devil in disguise?
Laura will learn the answers on the night of her thirtieth birthday, when once more the stranger appears, desperately needing her help if he is to survive. He then reveals the true nature of her awesome fate, but it is a revelation that will lead to even greater danger. Indeed, Lightning has struck once more, shattering the lives of Laura and her child. The adventure - and the terror - have just begun.

The jacket description does not do this book justice and in some parts it's just plain wrong. I'm not even sure if the person who wrote it actually read the book. This novel starts with the birth of Laura, and with her guardian keeping a drunk doctor at home because otherwise he would botch the delivery and make her paralyzed for life. At other times in Laura's life, this man appears and saves her, though sometimes he can't save those that are with her. How does he know when she will be in trouble? He just jumps to the future and sees where she is then. He then goes back to change anything that needs changing. Her guardian is a time traveler, however, the big reveal is when he tells what time he's from and why he's there.

While this reads like a Koontz book, it varies a bit from the typical plot that runs through a lot of his novels, and that works. A lot of the book is taken up with Laura growing up and not only is this fascinating, but it's also needed to make the reader care about her as a fleshed out human being.

The twist in this novel - where the time traveler is from, what he's doing in Laura's time, and what will happen if he doesn't succeed in his mission - is unique and completely unexpected.

Even though Laura's adult years are spent in the 1980's, the book has a modern feel and doesn't read as if it were set close to thirty years ago.

The story flows well and remains interesting even through the exposition and through the background years of Laura's life.

I would recommend this to anyone, and add that if you're a Koontz fan, you should definitely give it a read.

My rating: Three and a half out of five snails.