It was very convenient that Laura, as part of her research as an author, had learned how to gain access to military standard weaponry and knew how to obtain high quality fake identification documents. It was very handy and let’s face it, naff and highly unlikely, that two girls who grew up in the care system should both become famous and successful multi-millionaires. Sometimes the plot was a tad cheesy and unbelievable.
The difference between Mr Koontz and I, I suppose, is that as a writer of some repute, he can get away with it and I can’t. Mr Koontz, on the other hand, frequently over-describes scenes and settings, uses extra words that add nothing to the text, and repeatedly explains things that I already knew. I spend many hours poring over my work removing superfluous words and phrases and avoiding telling the reader things that they already know, or that would be perfectly obvious to anyone with a modicum of intelligence. I only mention this because I am constantly trying to avoid falling into this trap myself. I liked the way the story shifted between interdependent events occurring in different time zones making some sections very tense and exciting.Īs a writer myself, with nowhere near the level of success as Mr Koontz, I was surprised by how “overwritten” the book was. So often “big” sci-fi stories like this start well but lead to dissatisfying conclusions. When the truth was eventually revealed I was not disappointed. Mr Koontz skilfully created lots of questions and intrigue throughout the first half of the book that compelled me to read on to find out what it was all about. It also contains some truly audacious plot twists and turns with Stefan meeting some very interesting historical characters and getting involved in some very well-known historical events, in the course of his time travels. I loved the epic-ness of the story that follows Laura’s life from her birth well into adulthood and links in to some real historical events. It contained some pleasing characters – I particularly liked Laura’s best friend from childhood, Thelma. Lightning is a light, fast-paced, easy read.
Whenever I came to a part that was particularly perplexing for my poor old brain to grapple with, I’d just (like the characters) put it down to a time travel paradox and leave it at that. What helped a lot, was Laura’s nine-year-old son Chris’s, exposition about the “paradoxes” of time travel. Nevertheless, my confusion did not spoil my enjoyment of what was essentially a good story. Half the time I had no idea who was traveling to where and when, or why they were doing so. I always find stories about time travel extremely confusing, and Lightning was no exception to this.
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