Ur (novella)
Encyclopedia
Ur is a novella
by Stephen King
. It was written exclusively for the platform Amazon Kindle
, and became available for download on February 12, 2009. It was later released on audiobook.
King's agent, Ralph Vicinanza, has stated that downloads of the novella at Amazon.com have reached "five figures" in about three weeks, while also denying the novella is an infomercial for the Kindle. King's publisher, Scribner
, released Ur as an audiobook on February 16, 2010. In an interview in October 2010, King stated that he didn't write the novella for the money: "I did it because it was interesting. I'm fairly prolific. It took three days, and I've made about $80,000. You can't get that for short fiction from Playboy or anybody else. It's ridiculous."
. Due to a minor mistake in his credit card number, he is sent a pink Kindle (even though Kindles are always white). Slowly he realizes that this edition was meant for another Wesley Smith in a parallel universe.
Smith's Kindle has a peculiar function called UR that can search multiple universes for data. Smith finds four "new" books by Ernest Hemingway
, books he wrote in an alternate dimension where he lived for three more years. Wesley also discovers yet another function concerning newspapers that were published in an alternate universe.
Smith tells a friend and a student about the Kindle. The three try to connect to a newspaper from an alternate reality but find to their horror that no papers are published that day. They learn that in the alternative reality, the world ended when the Cuban missile crisis
escalated into a nuclear war.
Using the UR feature on his Kindle, Smith also discovers that a busload of students will be killed by a drunk driver in less than three days. He seeks out help to track down the drunk driver and keep him from killing the students. He is successful, although he realizes no one other than his two friends will know.
However, he is wrong. When he gets back from his success, he finds that low men in yellow coats are waiting for him, ready to punish him for using the forbidden function of the Kindle. He argues that perhaps this change was meant to happen – how else could he have gotten the Kindle otherwise? His argument does not fully sway the low men, but they feel it best to simply keep it from happening again by taking the Kindle, leaving Wesley alone to ponder the enormity of a world he thought he understood.
The Dark Tower
; fans will not only recognize the eponymous location but also the Low Men in Yellow Coats as introduced in King's 1999 book Hearts in Atlantis
.
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
. It was written exclusively for the platform Amazon Kindle
Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
, and became available for download on February 12, 2009. It was later released on audiobook.
Release
King said, speaking about Ur:The delivery mechanism to my mind is secondary for me as a writer. [...] But I did this once before with a story called Riding the BulletRiding the BulletRiding the Bullet is a novella by Stephen King. This work marks King's debut on the Internet. Simon & Schuster, with technology by SoftLock, first published Riding the Bullet in 2000 as the world's first mass-market electronic book, available for download at $2.50...
and I never had so many guys in suits come up to me and ask me questions. But they didn't want to know about the story, they didn't want to know about the process, they wanted to know about the delivery system, but to me that's secondary. [...] I think people will be more interested in the business aspect of [Ur] than they will in the story. I would never have agreed to it if I didn't think it was a pretty good story.
I decided I would like to write a story for the Kindle, but only if I could do one about the Kindle. Gadgets fascinate me, particularly if I can think of a way they might get weird. I had previously written about homicidal cars, sinister computers, and brain-destroying mobile phones; at the time the Amazon request came in, I'd been playing with an idea about a guy who starts getting e-mails from the dead. The story I wrote, Ur, was about an e-reader that can access books and newspapers from alternate worlds. I realized I might get trashed in some of the literary blogs, where I would be accused of shilling for Jeff Bezos & Co., but that didn't bother me much; in my career, I have been trashed by experts, and I'm still standing.
King's agent, Ralph Vicinanza, has stated that downloads of the novella at Amazon.com have reached "five figures" in about three weeks, while also denying the novella is an infomercial for the Kindle. King's publisher, Scribner
Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
, released Ur as an audiobook on February 16, 2010. In an interview in October 2010, King stated that he didn't write the novella for the money: "I did it because it was interesting. I'm fairly prolific. It took three days, and I've made about $80,000. You can't get that for short fiction from Playboy or anybody else. It's ridiculous."
Plot
Wesley Smith, an English teacher at a college in Kentucky, wants to go "New School" and buys a KindleAmazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media...
. Due to a minor mistake in his credit card number, he is sent a pink Kindle (even though Kindles are always white). Slowly he realizes that this edition was meant for another Wesley Smith in a parallel universe.
Smith's Kindle has a peculiar function called UR that can search multiple universes for data. Smith finds four "new" books by Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, books he wrote in an alternate dimension where he lived for three more years. Wesley also discovers yet another function concerning newspapers that were published in an alternate universe.
Smith tells a friend and a student about the Kindle. The three try to connect to a newspaper from an alternate reality but find to their horror that no papers are published that day. They learn that in the alternative reality, the world ended when the Cuban missile crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
escalated into a nuclear war.
Using the UR feature on his Kindle, Smith also discovers that a busload of students will be killed by a drunk driver in less than three days. He seeks out help to track down the drunk driver and keep him from killing the students. He is successful, although he realizes no one other than his two friends will know.
However, he is wrong. When he gets back from his success, he finds that low men in yellow coats are waiting for him, ready to punish him for using the forbidden function of the Kindle. He argues that perhaps this change was meant to happen – how else could he have gotten the Kindle otherwise? His argument does not fully sway the low men, but they feel it best to simply keep it from happening again by taking the Kindle, leaving Wesley alone to ponder the enormity of a world he thought he understood.
Connections to the Dark Tower
Once again, Stephen King establishes obvious connections to his magnum opusMagnum opus
Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning "great work", refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of a writer, artist, or composer.-Related terms:Sometimes the term magnum opus is used to refer to simply "a great work" rather than "the...
The Dark Tower
The Dark Tower (series)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by American author Stephen King, which incorporates themes from multiple genres, including fantasy, science fantasy, horror and western. It describes a "Gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical. King...
; fans will not only recognize the eponymous location but also the Low Men in Yellow Coats as introduced in King's 1999 book Hearts in Atlantis
Hearts in Atlantis
Hearts in Atlantis is a collection of two novellas and three short stories by Stephen King, all connected to one another by recurring characters and taking place in roughly chronological order....
.