Laura Shane is an orphan, but she is destined to be an acclaimed author, if she can live long enough for that to happen of course. Seems Laura has a guardian Angel who comes to her aid when things are at their most desperate, and heck things really do get downright frightening as Laura lives her life. Seems a group of fanatics’ view Laura and her future son Chris as legitimate targets, due to a fundamental flaw in the novel, you better believe I’ll get to that. Turns out Laura’s guardian Angel is all human and comes from one of the most dystopian societies you can image, Katniss Everdeen isn’t going to sort this one out. Can Laura, her son, and her guardian Angel survive the onslaught of evil forces or will they succumb and the world become a little darker. There’s more at stake than our main characters however, perhaps the future of the world as we know it is also in imminent danger! Time to get the DeLorean out and check out a time traveling novel from the King of techno horror fiction.

Okay I know what you are thinking, why the hell am I reviewing what amounts to a SciFi novel with very limited horror going down in it. Well, to stretch a point, time traveling Nazis, who doesn’t want to get into a bit of that. So we’re talking political horror, which is always a very light scary touch, but which points out the dangers we all face. Side tracking here, but if Koontz had written this novel in the last couple of years I would have been mentioning the parallels to Donald Trump’s MAGA movement and what amounts to his SS thugs in ICE. But hey, let’s move along and discuss the novel in terms of its year of release, rather than labelling Koontz as some later day Nostradamus. Suffice it to say, we’re talking SciFi with a light dusting of horror here; once again time travelling Nazis folks.

In terms of writing style, no one does the techno thing better than Dean R. Koontz, he is wallowing in what is pretty much paperback pulp but raises the game to such an extent that you are left wondering why they don’t cover his novel in University courses, but hey guess Koontz writes for the rest of us and not the self-indulgent elites. So we get a well-constructed novel that is built solidly throughout the narrative, pacing that drives the reader through the book with no doubt some way past turning out the lights reading, and characters we can readily believe in. Koontz delivers a speculative novel that people should be shaking their heads over, but who are forced to rock to as the author lays down some believable beats.

Any novel that has time travel as a central plot mechanic needs to explain how that comes about and at least hit at the science involved, you really don’t need to write chapters on how it works, we aren’t here for a Physics lesson. So Koontz gives a brief explanation of time travel in this universe, explains travellers can only go forward in time to dates they have never previously visited, and can’t change what has already happened in their previous timeline. How is this technology not readily available in the current time? Glad you asked, Koontz explains in passing how the technology is lost and why knowledge of it hasn’t permutated to the wider world. I’m not going to cover how this goes down, spoilers you know, but for sure I was nodding my head in approval at twin plot devices used to get over what might have developed as a narrative issue. So believable enough time travel, without the reader being bored with it being over explained.

As expected with any Koontz novel the central characters are well drawn, have their motivations defined successfully, and who will resonate with the reader. Laura Shane is a strong female lead, who as opposed to recent Hollywood female leads, has entirely feminine motivations that don’t dimension her ability to be a kick arse heroine. Even better she isn’t a Mary Sue, Laura needs to learn how to use weapons and how to fight. Similarly, her son learns how to get things done and how to follow orders when the brown stuff hits the fan, I was really pleased with Koontz’s character here, he is readily believable as a modern boy excited by Science Fiction realities suddenly entering his life.

Perhaps the Author’s greatest creation in this novel is Laura Shane’s guardian Angel, who goes from an almost mythical being to being entirely human. The Angel, trying not to give up spoilers here, has his own past that he is trying to make up for, which influences his every action. The plotline that might have readers bemused is why the Angel selects Laura as a subject worth saving and guiding. It is at once inane, sorry but it is, and speaks to the ability of the human species to rise above their own condition. I’m not going to say more here, read the book to rock to a well-defined character trying to atone for past actions.

Unfortunately, there are a few fundamental flaws in the novel, which really didn’t sit well with me. The Angel needs to interfere in Laura’s life to avoid some major traumas, but in doing so brings Laura to the attention of even more dangerous foes. There is an ongoing fallacy in this novel that might take some readers out of the plot, things change as the narrative requires them to, that undermines the overall reader experience. It would take a while to point out the plot issues, I don’t have space here to list them, but if you are not going to be thinking deeply about what you are reading then you are probably going to be okay. I was brought up short on a number of things, but overall this didn’t diminish my enjoyment of Lightning.

Trying to define the horror tactics here is probably a losing course of action, at its heart the novel isn’t a traditional horror read, but let’s at least pay lip service. Like many of Koontz’s novels he gives room for his antagonist to develop, we have a full understanding of the psychology of the major threat, and that should at least be frightening to folk in the U.S given the rise of MAGA. Perhaps less well developed are the minor threats in Laura Shane’s life, for mine the paedophile wasn’t given enough space, but hey probably entering some dangerous grounds there with this subject. So overall I guess we are talking horror adjacent here, rather than opening a moonlight shrouded door in the horror mansion.

I’m always up to reading a Dean R. Koontz novel, which is just as well as there are dozens of them in the review queue, so was more than pleased to dive into Lightning, one of the Author’s lesser known novels. The book is well written from a prose point of view, has excellent pacing, and surprises the reader from time to time. Ultimately there were some issues but not enough to take me out of the book. I would recommend this one, definitely required reading for Koontz fans, but also to non-horror readers, there’s nothing here that is going to make your hair stand on end. Dean R. Koontz may not have caught lightening in a bottle with this novel, but hey close enough, very solid read folks.