Level 26

     Finished off reading one of the weirder books I've ever read the other night. I call it weird in that it dubs itself as the first DIGI-NOVEL. The title: Level 26 Dark Orgins. The author: Anthony E. Zuiker with Duane Swierczynski. Mr Zuiker is the creator of my favorite CSI shows. If you're not into them then you certainly won't be into this book, as it goes deeper and darker than most things I usually read. I Love CSI! The original, though the replacement of Gil with Dr. Ray leaves much to be desired for me. And NY. I watched Miami for a little while at the beginning but just couldn't take it anymore and gave up on it.
     I found this book from and episode of CSI. If you're a watcher- the one with Sqweegel. I noticed right away the storyline for that episode had come from a book. With my love of books and of course the character still at large at the end of the episode, I had to get the book to see what happened. It is a bit sick and twisted but very entertaining. If you're not into dark things don't bother picking this up to read.
     The premise is of course about the character Sqweegel. It's stated that law enforcement recognizes 25 levels of evil. From naive, innocent, happenstance criminals to the sick, twisted, digusting, torture ones. Well with Sqweegel they have made a new class. He's so bad he's on a new level all by himself, level 26. It took me awhile to get into it. As I've said it's quite twisted but once I got into the characters I was hooked and flew through it in a few days' time. I also like my horror movies so some of this stuff in the book wasn't so bad for me.
     Now onto the whole digi-novel premise. Of course it being the first, I had never heard of it and wasn't sure exactly what it meant or what to expect. Well the book is tied into a website. As you read the book after about every 20 pages you unlock a code. On the website this code unlocks a cyber-bridge. A video that ties into the story and lasts anywhere from thirty seconds to about 4 minutes or so. The book states you don't have to watch but of course in the beginning I was too curious and had to watch before moving on to the next chapter. This became too annoying as I love to sit and read and relax not being plugged in anywhere. As I skipped my first code and kept reading I learned I wasn't missing anything to the story as it was talked about in the next chapter. I was however missing the visual aspects I had gotten used to. So I'd read all I wanted and when I had a chance would go back and catch up on the cyber-bridges. My curiosity being too much for me to not watch them. 
     Overall I think it's a great concept, hooking the book in with the website and getting to watch the characters come to life. They are not changing anything of the story as movies often do to ruin books. These enhance and make it more interesting. Sure, Steve Dark, the main investigator hunting Sqweegel, didn't look anything like I had originally pictured him in my head but I got used to it, and he became the character for me. The story was very interesting and kept me riveted. And the thought of a psycho like this possibly ever exsisting has certainly kept me on my toes and aware of my surroundings as I'm out and about lately.
     I was a little disappointed that the last cyber-bridge led into the next book, as in sequel, which I'm not always fond of. But I am happy to be able to continue reading about Mr. Dark and learning more about his character. I just hope it's the next chapter in his story I will be reading and not Sqweegel part 2! Waiting for it from the library and will keep you posted on if it's worth it.