Wednesday, August 29, 2012

"Ur"

I finally got around to reading Stephen King's story "Ur", which was published when the Kindle 2 came out in 2009, and which revolves around a Kindle, a pink one even, and one with supernatural powers of course.

Actually when I bought it I didn't think about how King's stories usually involving a supernatural horror element, and I had read a third of the novella before I realized it. But despite me preferring either comedy or SF or at least some fantasy, I enjoyed the story from the beginning just the same.
I was never much into King, read a couple of his books man years ago and didn't get far in The Shining (all the characters seemed so unlikable) (Maybe I was not very invested in it, I found the book in a sharing-library in a hotel). But with Ur I found the story well crafted and entertaining, and I was interested in where it was going. Part of it was of course the Kindle aspect of it, but I even found myself rooting for the protagonist in the love-story aspect of it, which doesn't happen often.

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It is weird with King, though, I wonder what happened. He was a huge promoter of the Kindle early on and he was one of the first to publish a story solely via the Net, and then suddenly with his latest book he says that it will only be published on paper, and anybody who wants to read it will "have to buy the actual book". I can't figure out what kind of trauma can lead to such a screeching 180-degree turn.
... Well, I found a quote with a bit more context:
"I love crime, I love mysteries, and I love ghosts. That combo made Hard Case Crime the perfect venue for this book, which is one of my favorites. I also loved the paperbacks I grew up with as a kid, and for that reason, we’re going to hold off on e-publishing this one for the time being. Joyland will be coming out in paperback, and folks who want to read it will have to buy the actual book." -Stephen King

That makes it sound less hard-nosed. "For the time being" might mean that the book will come out as ebook a year later or summin'. Maybe he is just saying that the temporary limitation to paperback is a sort of tribute to the old pulp fiction days.

2 comments:

andrea said...

he is highly pirated. maybe he's looking for a way around it.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Ah. Not unlikely.
Though probably in vain.