Book Review - Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski
Category Book Review Duane Swierczynski Level 26: Dark Origins
Interesting concept, but a plot that left much to be desired... Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski. This book showed up at the local library, and the concept was enough to draw me in... The book is termed a "digi-novel", in that there are a number of website video vignettes that are supposed to add to the overall story. For instance, an international conference call is held to update the status on finding the killer. The web-based video shows the actual call as the author envisioned it. You can read the story without referencing the website at all, but it's supposed to add to the overall experience.
That's the "interesting concept" part of the book. The story itself is grotesque crime horror, but leaves quite a bit to be desired. Murderers are assigned a classification level based on the types of killers and their motivation. The high-end of this scale is level 25. But as the title would indicate, there's one killer who is more evil and horrific than any other in history, hence the level 26 classification. Many over the years have gone after this killer, nicknamed "Squweegel", but only one has come close... Steve Dark. But Dark lost his foster family to Squweegel in a particular nasty killing, so he's out of the picture. That is, until the secret government unit assigned to tracking down killers coerces him back into the game. Dark is pretty sure he's not going to cave into their demand, but Squweegel has different ideas. A few well-timed incidents proves to Dark that Squweegel is again after him, and Dark has no choice but to go back on offense to protect all that he's gained since his life was nearly destroyed the first time.
First off, a warning... If you don't like gruesome explicit violence, pass on this. It's graphic. With that out of the way, there are other reasons you may not want to read it. For instance, the plot has enough holes to drive a truck through. I never did learn *why* Squweegel had the mission and motivation he had for killing those he targeted. Childhood trauma? Who knows... if it was out there, I missed it. Next, there's no clue as to where Squweegel gets his money to support his crime habit over the years. He's able to go wherever he wants, plant electronic devices all over the place, monitor them 24/7, but how? And this dark agency that hunts down the killer... If someone fails on their mission or turns down an assignment, the head of the agency has him killed... say what? And the videos? Some are OK, but a few border on overly-ripe cheezy. Those issues, and a few others, made it difficult for me to really *like* the book. Yes, I did finish it in less than a day, as I wanted to know how it turned out. But did it have a compelling story and plot? Not so much...
Bonus star for the guts and effort to try something different. But it's not enough to bail out a plot that would be better suited for a 45 minute episode of a weekly crime series, not a full-length novel.
Interesting concept, but a plot that left much to be desired... Level 26: Dark Origins by Anthony E. Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski. This book showed up at the local library, and the concept was enough to draw me in... The book is termed a "digi-novel", in that there are a number of website video vignettes that are supposed to add to the overall story. For instance, an international conference call is held to update the status on finding the killer. The web-based video shows the actual call as the author envisioned it. You can read the story without referencing the website at all, but it's supposed to add to the overall experience.
That's the "interesting concept" part of the book. The story itself is grotesque crime horror, but leaves quite a bit to be desired. Murderers are assigned a classification level based on the types of killers and their motivation. The high-end of this scale is level 25. But as the title would indicate, there's one killer who is more evil and horrific than any other in history, hence the level 26 classification. Many over the years have gone after this killer, nicknamed "Squweegel", but only one has come close... Steve Dark. But Dark lost his foster family to Squweegel in a particular nasty killing, so he's out of the picture. That is, until the secret government unit assigned to tracking down killers coerces him back into the game. Dark is pretty sure he's not going to cave into their demand, but Squweegel has different ideas. A few well-timed incidents proves to Dark that Squweegel is again after him, and Dark has no choice but to go back on offense to protect all that he's gained since his life was nearly destroyed the first time.
First off, a warning... If you don't like gruesome explicit violence, pass on this. It's graphic. With that out of the way, there are other reasons you may not want to read it. For instance, the plot has enough holes to drive a truck through. I never did learn *why* Squweegel had the mission and motivation he had for killing those he targeted. Childhood trauma? Who knows... if it was out there, I missed it. Next, there's no clue as to where Squweegel gets his money to support his crime habit over the years. He's able to go wherever he wants, plant electronic devices all over the place, monitor them 24/7, but how? And this dark agency that hunts down the killer... If someone fails on their mission or turns down an assignment, the head of the agency has him killed... say what? And the videos? Some are OK, but a few border on overly-ripe cheezy. Those issues, and a few others, made it difficult for me to really *like* the book. Yes, I did finish it in less than a day, as I wanted to know how it turned out. But did it have a compelling story and plot? Not so much...
Bonus star for the guts and effort to try something different. But it's not enough to bail out a plot that would be better suited for a 45 minute episode of a weekly crime series, not a full-length novel.
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Comments
Posted by John Lindsay At 03:53:43 On 28/09/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 05:00:47 On 28/09/2009 | - Website - |
Give it a try.
Posted by externe festplatten At 23:15:43 On 28/09/2009 | - Website - |