Level 26: Dark Origins - A thriller from the stables of Crime scene Investigation (The CSI series) director Anthony Zuicker is an account by the famed writer Swerzynski of a heinous serial killer butchering innocent victims. The serial killer in question is the psychopathic Squeegal who dons a latex suit and commits unspeakable crimes. One thinks that another to the list does not make a difference. This is no ordinary serial killer saga but a transition of the printed book format to the experience of the generation next. A cross platform, multimedia experience constitutes the website level26.com and a series of video footages supplementing the printed form.

The reader can read 20 pages of the book and then watch the 3 minute footage functioning as a connection between the content called cyber bridges and then resume reading. Readers complain that too much effort goes into first reading the prescribed pages, use the code given and then access your internet to watch the movie clip. Two of the videos which were previewed hopefully should stand testimony to the rest of the movie clips. The trailer was slickly presented in the CSI style.

watch the trailer here
Even if you own an e-reader like Amazon’s Kindle, a PC is inevitable; probably the proposed Apple Tablet would prove a panacea as it will support multimedia as well.
Now interactive contests are posted in the website like photo story telling by the readers which will turn out into a 500 word story by Zuicker himself. They have even promised live discussions with a serial killer. This is sensationalizing level 26 to the next level.

Interestingly level 26 indicates a complex psychopath with high IQ committing murders given with shocking explicitness in the trailer.

With so much hype and hoopla level 26: Dark Origins is the first in the series of the printed word, transitioned because of being pushed beyond its conservative limitations.

This initiative sparks the debate amidst readers, if attention spans demand more choices as Zuicker says, then information consumption has to be made less tedious. Jumping from one medium to another doesn’t excite the reader in anyway. The tablet for this only ailment of the cross platform reading experience is that single device solution.

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