Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    UR
    UR
    UR
    Audiobook2 hours

    UR

    Written by Stephen King

    Narrated by Holter Graham

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateAug 16, 2010
    ISBN9781442303102
    UR
    Author

    Stephen King

    Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

    Related authors

    Related to UR

    Related audiobooks

    Science Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      8 Best Stephen King Books That Will Have You Gripped

      Mar 14, 2021

      To say that readers love Stephen King is a huge understatement. The most recent count of his total sales came to a whopping 350 million and his affable online presence, no-nonsense attitude to transphobia and right-wing politics, and extremely genero

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Horror Within

      Aug 29, 2020

      Stephen King’s supreme craftsmanship lies in his ability to allow the reader to build up the horror in her/ his mind instead of explicitly describing it. Most often, this horror lurks in the most mundane situations and in the most ordinary lives, unt

      1 min read

    • Article

      Review: Stephen King Modeled 'The Stand' On 'Lord Of The Rings.' TV Has Done It No Favors

      Dec 17, 2020

      As a story of a world-gutting flu pandemic, Stephen King's "The Stand," whose second, superior miniseries adaptation began Thursday on CBS All Access, could not be more timely. And as a story of good and evil facing off for the usual high stakes — a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Emil, Approximated

      Nov 3, 2022

      Emil, Approximated
      15 min read

    • Article

      When Women Aren’t Angels

      Feb 12, 2018

      When Women Aren’t Angels
      7 min read

    • Article

      Manuals for Living

      Aug 14, 2019

      IF I conducted a brutal assessment of my reading habits—something I am not eager to do—the results would show that I spend an alarming percentage of my time rereading the same book: the 1965 novel Stoner by John Williams. As a reader and part-time bo

      6 min read

    • Article

      Echo

      Jan 10, 2024

      Once, during a depressive episode, Stanley cut out thirteen small paper stars and taped them to the ceiling of his cluttered bedroom. They were made from the construction paper left over from his youth, stored away in a basket on a shelf in the basem

      14 min read

    • Article

      Brandon Taylor: ‘Writing Is The Most Fun I’m Capable Of Having’

      Jun 3, 2023

      Brandon Taylor writes quickly. “I can type almost as fast as I can think,” he says. The first draft of his debut novel, the Booker-shortlisted Real Life, took him five weeks; last June he challenged a writer friend to a race. The friend had been 30,0

      5 min read

    • Article

      His Brilliant Career

      Mar 19, 2023

      His Brilliant Career
      9 min read

    • Article

      Thinkers, Writers And Storytellers

      Jun 30, 2022

      John Self is The Critic’s lead fiction critic. He lives in Belfast ‘‘I LOVED IT AND COULD HAVE read a thousand more pages of it,” said novelist Emma Cline of Elif Batuman’s debut novel The Idiot (2017). Well, Emma, will 350 pages do instead? My tone

      5 min read

    • Article

      Dear John: Benedict Wells in Conversation with John Irving

      Feb 7, 2019

      Fear can paralyze me, but it also fires up my imagination, opens doors, and creates images I have at my disposal when I tell stories. The post Dear John: Benedict Wells in Conversation with John Irving appeared first on The Millions.

      16 min read

    • Article

      Was Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe Story?

      May 22, 2019

      In “William Wilson,” the most autobiographical of his tales, Poe may have been portraying his own unspeakable boarding school experience. The post Was Jordan Peele’s ‘Us’ Inspired by an Edgar Allan Poe Story? appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for UR

    4/5

    703 ratings52 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this. i really wish there was more to it than there was, but i enjoyed it for what it was.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Omg it’s so creepy and amazing as always. Love his work!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Everything serves the tower. No doubt a true statement as it is always in evidence. Another wonderful episode.
    • 1/5
      Terrible story, awful narration. King at his laziest. Don't bother.
    • 5/5
      Had to listen to it all at once, could not stop!
    • 4/5
      It was a interesting read, it kept me wanting to listen non stop.
    • 5/5
      Just keeping in touch with “The Towerverse” was enough to make me like this story. It’s short for King so I won’t talk spoilers but I will say this, the lesson here is an age old one and I don’t need low-men to believe that the lesson is a real one!
      Good narrator! Good story and good flow.
    • 5/5
      Typically Stephen king. Entertaining, interesting story and characters. Quick read.
    • 4/5
      For one more time Stephen king's mind who leaves you speechless
    • 5/5
      Yet another fantastic story by one of the masters of his craft. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors and he never disappoints!
    • 5/5
      The low men always creep me out. Long live the King.
    • 4/5
      It was fun listening to but the whole alien thing at the end was not fun
    • 5/5
      The way that Graham narrates a story I relish because he breathes his stories. Stephen King, the novelist and Graham, the narrator are powerful.
    • 3/5
      UR is a novella by Stephen King and was released strictly as an e-book in 2009. It has never been published as a paperback, although it was released as an audiobook a year after publication.As you might be able to tell by the front cover, UR is about e-readers, or a pink Kindle in particular. With the stinging words of his ex-girlfriend in his ears: "why can't you just read off the computer like the rest of us?" Wesley decides to leave the comfort zone of paper and books and enter the world of e-readers.He orders a Kindle through Amazon and is surprised when he receives a pink one through the mail, when Kindles are usually white. However when he discovers additional works by notable authors that can't possibly exist - other than in an alternate universe - he is shocked. He also finds that he can access newspapers from the future and the past at a cost. Wesley peeks into the past but also learns there will be an accident in a few days and sets out to try and stop it.UR is an interesting concept, and I loved the idea of discovering additional works from countless well-known authors, written in multiple universes where they had lived longer or been more prolific. It also makes me smile in appreciation of King's mastery to write a novella about an e-reader and never have it published in paperback. What a legend!However the second half of the novella was a little reminiscent of the TV show Early Edition. All in all, an entertaining and easy read.
    • 5/5
      Amazing King Short! Very interesting and capivating. Reconmemded to any King fan
    • 5/5
      Holy crap..that was excellent! A wonderful unexpected gift back into that awesome world of the dark tower. Thank you Mr King..you made me smile and brought me back to a time when I was happily lost in a world other than this.highly recommended ❤️?
    • 3/5
      Excellent short story, nice touch with current technology
    • 5/5
      The Kindle in this story would ensnare any book lover. Access to alternative realities in which writers produced many alternative works to those known? Wow. Just for good measure, Stephen King introduced some trademark ethereal nastiness that made it impossible to stop listening. Just - wow. Loved it.
    • 4/5
      This is a quick, fun read. Stephen King is such a good storyteller. I thought it ended a little abruptly, but overall, I really enjoyed it.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful. Classic King.
    • 4/5
      In UR, Wesley Smith decides to buy a Kindle after breaking up with his girlfriend - or rather, her walking out of his life. He purchases a couple of titles before exploring the Experimental option on the Main Menu. The usual stuff appears, but it's the UR Functions that catch his attention. Soon after, Wesley discovers several novels from writers like Hemingway that were never published and some that came to being after his death. Soon, realization sets in - this e-reader taps into alternate realities, providing its owner with archive newspapers from other URs and ultimately, future newspaper editions of the Wesley's UR.

      The story's a great read, using a popular science fiction device with a hint of stories like The Queer Story of Brownlow's Newspaper and stories like it - which is the one about the reader gets future obituaries only to die of a heart attack when he receives his? It's clear, though, that Stephen King has a some beef against technology. Which is cool, considering a man who keeps writing about all the messed up ways things can kill us.
    • 3/5
      Wesley Smith is an English professor at an average college in America. As his girlfriend breaks up with him, she grabs the book he's reading out of his hands, tosses it across the room and asks him why he can't read off the computer like everyone else. Out of spite, Wesley buys a Kindle but his Kindle isn't normal. First of all, it's pink. Secondly, it gives him access to much more information than he imagined.

      UR is the most recent short story/novella by Stephen King. Leave it to Stephen King to take a normally harmless everyday gadget and make it wicked (Christine, anyone?). This short story was narrated by Holter Graham and he did a pretty good job. It wasn't outstanding or terrific but it wasn't bad either. That's about my description of the book. I became addicted to Stephen King's stories at one point in my life and found his horror stories to be mesmerizing; however, it seems as if his stories have lost that it quality that they had before. I think the main reason is King doesn't really write horror stories anymore. It's kind of freaky to think that I could order a Kindle that would access different worlds but it's not that "I've got to stop reading because I'm too scared to go any further" type of scary. Guess I'll get off my soapbox now.

      UR is a good short story just don't expect to be scared.
    • 5/5
      "All things serve the Tower."

      UR ties into the low men in yellow coats of the Dark Tower universe!
    • 5/5
      Once again, Stephen King manages to be creative, fresh and innovative. UR is cutting edge and very topical... with the spooky overtones we expect from Mr. King. On the one hand, I hate his short stories.. because in no time at all -- you're done! On the other hand, I am continually amazed at how complete he manages to make his short stories. You approach the final pages with regret, and I am certain that - had he wished to - Mr. King could have turned this concept into a full-length novel (and still could? hint hint).. but the story is complete. You're not left feeling that you've read the Reader's Digest version, or feeling that he got bored/busy/stuck with a deadline... and so he cut the story short.
    • 3/5
      Wesley Smith, a college English teacher, buys a Kindle after a fight with his girlfriend, a non-reader who coaches women's basketball and mocks his resistance to new technology. But Wesley's Kindle is special, and he has to agree to special rules to receive its content. On his Kindle he can access works of the most famous authors of the ages from other dimensions. He discovers new works by Hemingway, Shakespeare, and novels by Poe. As he begins to feel he's starting to go mad, he shares the secret with two others. Ultimately, they check out another of the special features--future issues of the local paper. Of course what they discover is horrible and they must decide to break the rules.

      Some readers have seen this as simply a long ad for Amazon's kindle. Instead I heard King, through Wesley, singing the praises of hard copy books and they way they smell and the joy of looking at them on your shelves. In addition, I see common questions about what happens when we try to change the future, and a fascination with JFK. Others have said this is loosely tied to The Dark Tower series. I've never been interested in reading that series. This little novella makes me think it's time to reconsider.

      This wasn't a great work, but I think it said a lot in its mere 61 pages.
    • 3/5
      Totally weird....but definitely Stephen King
    • 5/5
      Classic Stephen King - only he make a story about books scary.
    • 4/5
      UR is Stephen King showing us his best as a short story writer. A Kindle e-reader, alternate realities, a couple of interesting relationships, and a suspenseful plot. Mr. King gives us just enough of everything … characters fleshy enough to get to like (or hate as the case may be), an ordinary everyday existence that tip toes into the realms of the twilight zone, a plot thick enough to draw the reader in, and a couple of moral questions that make you go “Hmmmmm?”. A few references to and surprise appearances by characters of previous novels make it interesting for Stephen King fans but would not take away from the story if you were a first time King reader.
      Someone once told me that a novel is like a lake condensed into a puddle. In UR Mr. King takes a thunderstorm and condenses it into a raindrop.
      Read UR on your Kindle … I dare you!
    • 3/5
      This novella is about a Kindle that shows alternative realities in the future. The characters were pretty interesting and relate directly to the story. UR is part of The Dark Tower universe – something I have not yet read. King takes on Kindle! It was a short read and I thought it ended a little abruptly...wondering about the future.
    • 4/5
      What I've come to expect from King...a nice easy to read book. This was a simple story that tied into other King themes really well.