Fearful of becoming extinct, publishing increasingly has turned to interactive novels, of which LEVEL 26: DARK ORIGINS is the latest. Written by CSI creator Anthony E. Zuiker with Duane Swierczynski, the book proclaims itself to be the world’s first “digi-novel” — not the first interactive novel, obviously, but the first to go by that marketing-ready moniker.
Whatever it’s called, LEVEL 26′s interactivity branches beyond mere gimmick. Its 20 online “cyberbridges” serve as transition between chapters, and they’re expertly filmed and edited, becoming a vital part of the book’s overall experience. The jacket says these are optional, and while that’s true to an extent, you’d be doing yourself a disservice to skip them. Imagine watching a movie and once every 15 minutes or so, you walk out to the lobby; that’s what it’d be like.
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