Level 26. Books: a new genre

Two multimedia books have appeared in September: Level 26: Dark Origins, by Anthony E. Zuiker, and Sens des choses (the meaning of things), by renowned economist and advisor to President Mitterrand, Jacques Attali. Both mix paper and digital technology to give a far from uninteresting experience.


While the debate on the digitalisation of books continues to stagnate, causing a certain amount of indecision in the publishing world, two hybrid books are challenging the boundaries of the standard medium. The two titles don’t have much in common, except that they lead the reader to use various additional tools as they turn the pages, including video, mobile phones (in Attali’s book) and a community site (in Level 26).


While Attali’s book – a surprising trend setter! - is already being called a hyperbook (in partnership with Orange, who are pursuing their content-based strategy), the first tome in the trilogy from the creator of the hugely successful series, CSI, could be qualified as a hybrid, multimedia or even interactive digital novel.

A mix of reality and the virtual

The hyperbook from Attali (Robert Laffont, France) or "the first augmented digital reading service" functions as follows: as the reader reads, they discover reflections on the future from several different people. In the course of their reading, the reader is invited to experience additions to scenes in the form of both video and audio tracks that can be accessed via flashcodes given on certain pages of the book.

All well and good, but although this is an original concept, the reader needs a mobile phone that can read these flashcodes, keys for complete access to this new genre work: you can only download the bonus content via these codes. This is currently quite a brake on things as only 26% of mobiles on the market are currently adapted to the codes.

For its part, Level 26, a sci-fi detective novel, also calls on internet technology and looks to seduce the “YouTube” generation, more attracted by video than reading. As the reader goes through the story their attention is from time to time called towards a film available on the internet. So video is an integral part of the book, without however substituting the written content. So much the better, as readers may not always have web access.

And just so as to hammer home the target market, Level 26 is also a web community where fans can meet up. All the ingredients seem to be there to attain one of its main objectives: appealing to a younger generation.

It remains to be seen if the story works well and if this unusual combination is not to the detriment of what makes a good novel.

> Buyer's Guides: Our Pick of The Best Products