VENTURE DOSSIER

In the Middle of All Things

A book you can listen to and watch

A book about personal change, told through physics: forces, momentum, axes and orbits. It is also a listening experience. Each chapter is narrated, and as the voice speaks, thousands of particles gather into the symbol for what is being said.

DOSSIER

01Why Merlin wanted to build it
02The partnership
03The product
04Product decisions
05How it is built
06Evidence and progress

01 · WHY MERLIN WANTED TO BUILD IT

Most audiobooks are a voice and a progress bar. Ideas about motion and balance are easier to feel than to read, so the book needed a form that moves. The web can carry that without an app store or a reader to install.

02 · THE PARTNERSHIP

Merlin-originated. Leantonio wrote the book, and Merlin designed and built the experience around it: the narration, the symbol language and the reader. A publishing or distribution partner is the open seat.

01Written by Leantonio, built by Merlin
02Four parts, fourteen chapters, all narrated
03Desktop and phone from one codebase

03 · THE PRODUCTmiddleofallthings.com

Live at middleofallthings.com. Listen, or read. Four parts and fourteen chapters, each narrated, with a read-along that follows the voice and a full reader for the page. The book itself is free as a PDF, with a list for the hardback edition.

Visit In the Middle of All Things

A line of narration above a circle of particles holding a play symbol — As the voice speaks, the particles take the shape of the idea.

Narrated

Every chapter is spoken, with a chapter timeline, playback speed and a mute for reading in silence.

Symbols that form

Over a hundred cues tie lines of the book to twenty shapes: an axis, a helix, a spiral, an orbit, a torus.

Read along

The text follows the voice, line by line, so you can listen and read at once.

A full reader

The whole book on one scrolling page, for people who would rather just read.

The book, free

Leave an email and the PDF arrives in your inbox. The same step joins the hardback list.

Phone first

One thumb reaches every control. It installs to the home screen like an app.

1 / 6

CAPTURED FROM THE LIVE SITE · DURING NARRATION

On a phone: a vertical axis of particles under the line about the direction of movement — Direction becomes an axis.

On a phone: a double helix of particles beside a line about the people who shaped you — What shaped you becomes a helix.

On a phone: a ring of particles under the introduction to Part One — The interior becomes a breathing circle.

On a phone: a lattice of particles under a line about the empty vessel — A fixed self becomes a lattice.

On a phone: three flowing channels of particles under a line about momentum — Momentum becomes a channel.

On desktop: a helix of particles under the line about how your parents argued — The same symbols, wider, on a desk.

On desktop: particles forming a torus under the author line — Coherence opens the book as a torus.

On desktop: a rotating lattice of particles beside a line of narration — Each symbol turns and breathes while it holds.

On desktop: particles flowing in parallel channels under a line about direction — Then they let go and form the next one.

Read-along open on desktop: the current paragraph lit as the narration reaches it — Read along: the text keeps pace with the voice.

The full book reader on desktop, opened at The Axis of Consequence — Or just read. The whole book, one page.

Read-along on a phone, with the symbol still forming behind the text — On a phone, read-along sits over the symbols.

The buy sheet on a phone: the book cover and a form to get the free PDF — The book, free as a PDF. The hardback list sits beside it.

04 · PRODUCT DECISIONS

01

A symbol only when something moves

Shapes appear when the text describes a force, a state or a change, not just an idea. The rule is written down, and every cue is checked against it.

02

One voice, start to finish

Narration is generated once and stored. The build refuses to mix voices, so a re-render can never change who is reading halfway through.

03

Calm by default

Black, quiet type and slow motion. The particles settle without overshoot, so nothing snaps or jitters while you listen.

04

No wall before the words

You can listen to the whole book without an account. An email is only asked for the PDF.

05

Keys stay off the page

Service settings are served at runtime, not baked into the site. If they are missing, sign-ups still work.

05 · HOW IT IS BUILT

React 19
Vite
TypeScript
Three.js
Canvas 2D
Google Cloud Text-to-Speech
Firebase
Netlify

Six thousand particles

One field of particles is pulled into each shape by soft gravity, then released into drift between cues.

A written shape language

Each of the twenty shapes has a form, a behaviour and a list of when to use it. Cues point at behaviours, not raw numbers.

Text drives the timing

Cues are matched to the words of a line, not to timestamps, so editing the audio never breaks a shape.

1 / 3

06 · EVIDENCE AND PROGRESS

Live and free to listen to, with no account. The hardback is in preparation and sign-ups for it are being collected. No sales figures yet, because the hardback is not yet on sale.

Have a book that wants to move?

If you have words, an audience or a route into publishing, the evaluator will work out what the product side could be.

Start a venture