Product Description
FIRST TIME ON AUDIO…
An Unabridged Novella Unavailable In Any Collection!
Tapping into our primal fears of modern technology that made Cell a #1 bestseller, Stephen King sets his sights on the latest high-tech gadget in UR, in which a mysterious e-book reader opens a disturbing window into other worlds.
Reeling from a painful break-up, English instructor and avid book lover Wesley Smith is haunted by his ex-girlfriend’s parting shot: “Why can’t you just read off the computer like everyone else?” He buys an e-book reader out of spite, but soon finds he can use the device to glimpse realities he had never before imagined, discovering literary riches beyond his wildest dreams…and all-too-human tragedies that surpass his most terrible nightmares.
From vintage cars (Christine and From a Buick 8) to household appliances (Maximum Overdrive) to exercise equipment (Stationary Bike), Stephen King has mesmerized us with tales of apparently ordinary machines that take on lives of their own. UR gives this classic theme an up-to-the-minute spin, resulting in a horror masterpiece for our time and for the ages.
Amazon.com Review
Since his first novel was published in 1974, Stephen King has stretched the boundaries of the storyteller as a writer who constantly redefines his readers’ experience by working in various genres and formats . Whether in an epic horror novel, like THE STAND, a serial-novel like THE GREEN MILE, or a novella like SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, King is able to deliver a reading experience like no one else can. As quickly as a spider spins its web, King reminds us why he’s the master of the novella – a format which, up until now that is, one might have thought is fast disappearing. In his new novella, UR, King is at his unsettling best as he examines the future of the written word – for better or worse. Following a nasty break-up, lovelorn college English instructor Wesley Smith can’t seem to get his ex-girlfriend’s parting shot out of his head: “Why can’t you just read off the computer like the rest of us?” Egged on by her question and piqued by a student’s suggestion, Wesley places an order for Amazon.com’s Kindle eReader. The [pink?] device that arrives in a box stamped with the smile logo -via one-day delivery that he hadn’t requested – unlocks a literary world that even the most avid of book lovers could never imagine. But once the door is open, there are those things that one hopes we’ll never read or live through. Firm, gripping, and deftly written by a craftsman at the top of his game, this is King at his crisp, clear, page-turning best. Download and read UR only on Kindle.
Matthew Erwin @ 3:34 pm
Stephen King has graced us kindle owners with a bit of surprise. Coming out a few weeks early, UR downloaded to my Kindle this morning and 90 minutes later I had devoured its 1737 locations.
UR settles into a space somewhere between a short story and a novella. The premise is simple but fascinating. After a mild mannered college professor orders a Kindle, he is met with a pink Kindle that downloads books not only from Amazon.com, but from Urs. Each of the more than 10 million Urs seem to represent a different reality where authors have written different books. Ever wanted to read the unpublished Hemingway book, or six Poe novels? King explores the possibilities and in the process makes every literary mind jealous.
Of course, being King, things start to go wrong and become disturbing when the professor finds out that the pink Kindle can also download newspapers from different Urs. I’ll let you discover the rest on your own.
Ur moves quick and features some cameo appearances by past King characters that will leave the most cynical CR smiling. It falls short of five stars simply because it is measured against other great King novellas and novels, but UR is a great diversion for any King fan.
An Ikearat's Brain @ 5:32 pm
I usually don’t even think of Stephen King when I go looking for something to read on my Kindle. That changed today. I’m sure you all remember the condition you were in when you walked out into the “real world” after seeing Star Wars for the first time… snapped-back from a total imersion, allmost dizzy from the exposure to thoughts and possibilities at the edge of your imagination! I have seen a few of the movies made from Mr. King’s books and while intertaining, I never put too much thought to the stories involved. Perhaps I should -read- some of those stories. Another reviewer said this story, “UR” should be included with new Kindles. I say it should by required reading for anyone who reads from a portable device!
Well done Mr. King, I’m your newest fan!
And yes, I did press the “Next Page” key, both at the end of the story AND on the Experimental page
(review writen on a Kindle!)
Bobbi @ 7:03 pm
A classic Stephen King tale, you start out walking in someone’s ordinary, everyday shoes and before you know it you’re tap dancing out there where the oxygen is thin.
When I was a kid reading comic books, I wanted to buy a box they advertised in the back pages, a box where you put in a dime at one end and take out a quarter at the opposite end. That is just what this Stephen King story does. It begins with an ordinary man doing an ordinary thing and then he misses the importance of the small clue that he has gone beyond normal until he is waaaay beyond normal. We’ve all done that, right? Sometimes we get lucky and sometimes we get out by the skin of our teeth. In King’s stories, you’re never sure which it will be.
I really wish this had been a full length book, rather than a novella. The end left me wanting more.
Laura B. @ 9:40 pm
I adore Stephen King and there isn’t much he’s written that I haven’t read. That said, his UR novella is a huge disappointment because it lacks not only strong characters, but embraces pedestrian dialogue and a predictable ending. Clearly, King likes the Kindle; UR is all about it. And it would seem that he’s enthralled with the emerging technology that one day will likely put nearly all books in some kind of digital format. I get all that, I really do. Those are some of the reasons I just bought a Kindle and made this novella my absolute first purchase. King! The Kindle! What I combo! At least that’s what I thought. But I doubt Stephen King spent more than a day banging this story out and unfortunately it shows in the ways I suggested above. The problem with that? It makes me wonder whether e-book readers — the Kindles and any others that grow with digital reading — will become dumping grounds for just about anything. That would be a shame, and any kind of move in that direction, especially by a top-drawer author, does all readers and people who might one day tackle digital ebook formats a tremendous disservice.
I expected better of King.
Ran Zhang @ 12:00 am
A book commissioned by Amazon to do nothing more than promote their own Kindle reader.
The reading isn’t bad, but this certainly was written to promote the device which I already own. This book is more suitable as a free book preloaded onto every Kindle reader.
At this price ($2.99) this book is not worth it.