UR is a really short novella that has been exclusively released for the amazon kindle.
The first few pages actually read like an advertisement for the kindle. We learn what a great device it is and that even university professors of English who love books can see the huge advantages a kindle has. Yes, Mr.King, we get it. It’s a great gadget and we don’t have to be afraid that it will replace our beloved books; and even if it does, it’s just so cool that we won’t even care!
Once the commercial break is over, however, the story becomes interesting. The kindle ordered by protagonist Wesley Smith is not like any other one; it gives the reader the possibility to access a kind of alternate literary reality – many different realities actually. These realities offer written material by every author there is and Smith is able to read unpublished – because in his reality unwritten – texts by various writers.
The plot is intriguing and of course there is the Stephen King mystery that keeps you reading. The novella left me wishing I had an awesome pink kindle that could access all the alternate material by Jane Austen and Scarlett Thomas and maybe even Stephen King. It’s a nice read if you have half an hour to fill and nothing else to do. It also was the first text by Stephen King that I was able to finish, probably because of its shortness.
By the way, I have not bought a kindle yet.