Universal Remote is one of the best books that I have read. The book is full of layers, and deep with plot and subplot. Hartnett offers what seem to be distractions or sidebars in the form of "channels"--chapters for a tech era. I am almost hesitant to compare a new writer with these names, but if the author can turn out work as good as this consistently, he will be mentioned with Orwell, Vonnegut and the other great fiction writers of recent times.

Michael Hartnett has struck literary brilliance with Universal Remote. In a satirical manner of candor and wit, so uncommon in today's trite novels, Hartnett has defied modern principle and created a brilliant work. To second Ken Darr's review, this is a book which I recommened without reservation.

A New Voice in Post-Modern Suburbia Universal Remote by Michael Hartnett Reviewed by Ken Darr, York College

True to the digitized consumerized world presented in the novel, Michael Hartnett's Universal Remote has something for everybody. It is a postmodern journey through suburbia arresting the reader with its visions of misunderstood, misapplied and misinterpreted technology. Universal Remote is all at once a mystery, comedy, satire and personal manifesto in which the author deftly intertwines the elements of a technologically starved society which knows not what it craves for. The novel also achieves something rarely, if ever, found in postmodern literature: it is a page turner. Hartnett successfully blends the elements of his story into what becomes a satirized mosaic manifesto of suburban culture. No, this is not another novel which simply highlights false values, hollow lifestyles and empty existence ala suburban styling; rather, Universal Remote uses suburban Long Island as its setting to allow a larger loftier vision to seep through like the toxic waste responsible for killing the rather philosophical Satan, who has several cameos (mainly he shows up dead). During a series of sharp opening scenes that include a science teacher lopping off his pinkie at a lecture, reporter Russell Pines joins Prometheus Labs to write PR for the messiah of technological gadgetry, a Universal Remote that has the ability to allow the owner to control all his devices and equipment from wherever he is. While the idea has been done before, Hartnett's treatment and plot orbiting around the device make the novel a truly original work. From his exposure to the device, Russell Pines is finally inspired into writing a long desired column series on what his life would be like if he immersed himself for a year in the artificial and technological elements of our existence. That means Rus as "Technoman" must eat only unnatural foods, interact through machines, sleep only with women who have had plastic surgery, etc. In the midst, Pines unwittingly meanders into technological sabotage, in and out of his fragmented relationship with his son, becomes completely wired to everything from his car to his physical nourishment, chases the story of Satan's final days, is visited by his past, throws himself into one of the funniest and outrageously politically incorrect sex scenes written to date, and becomes a target/hunter for a counter technoculture terrorist who may or may not exist, Paddy Dangus. The world Hartnett creates and examines is skillfully satirized. Upon it completion, the novel remains on the mind of the reader and beckons for continuance and reexamination. It is Hartnett's first novel, a bold and successful attempt which creates another welcome original voice to postmodern literature.

This book is a relatively small collection with fairly straight forward but beautifully rendered poems that have a simple lyrical quality that anyone can appreciate even if your experience of poetry is limited. The title poem, The Killing of Dreams as well as Orphans and Impasse are gems that have a perfect sense of wholeness and polish. Obviously I am biased as Michael's son but this is truly great poetry that still conveys his essence even after his death in October 1999.