A Girl in Time Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| A Girl in Time |
2016 |
Buy |
| The Golden Minute |
2018 |
Buy |
| The Cruel Stars |
2019 |
Buy |
| The Shattered Skies |
2022 |
Buy |
Anthologies#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Henfield Prize Stories |
1992 |
Buy |
| Adventures in Pop Culture |
2002 |
Buy |
| Contemporary Australia: Optimism |
2008 |
Buy |
| Legends of Australian Fantasy |
2010 |
Buy |
| The Best Australian Essays: A Ten-Year Collection |
2011 |
Buy |
| 10 Short Stories You Must Read in 2011 |
2011 |
Buy |
| Defending Australia |
2018 |
Buy |
| The Time Machine |
2024 |
Buy |
Axis Of Time Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Weapons of Choice |
2004 |
Buy |
| Wybór broni |
2004 |
N/A |
| Designated Targets |
2005 |
Buy |
| Final Impact |
2006 |
Buy |
| Stalin’s Hammer 1-3 |
2017 |
N/A |
| Stalin’s Hammer: Cairo |
2016 |
N/A |
| Stalin’s Hammer: Paris |
2016 |
N/A |
| World War 3.2: The Axis of Time |
2025 |
Buy |
Axis Of Time: Stalin’s Hammer Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Rome |
2012 |
Buy |
| Cairo |
2016 |
Buy |
| Paris |
2016 |
Buy |
Axis of Time: Reloaded Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| World War 3.1 |
2023 |
Buy |
| World War 3.2: The Axis of Time |
2025 |
Buy |
Dave vs. The Monsters Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Emergence |
2014 |
Buy |
| Resistance |
2015 |
Buy |
| Ascendance |
2015 |
Buy |
| Soul Full of Guns |
2016 |
Buy |
| A Protocol for Monsters |
2016 |
Buy |
| The Demons of Butte Crack County |
2017 |
Buy |
End of Days Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Surviving Chaos |
TBD |
N/A |
| Zero Day Code |
2021 |
Buy |
| Fail State |
2021 |
Buy |
| The Only One |
2014 |
N/A |
| American Kill Switch |
2022 |
Buy |
| Grip of Evil |
TBD |
N/A |
Non-Fiction#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| He Died with a Felafel in His Hand |
1994 |
Buy |
| How to be a Man |
1995 |
Buy |
| Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney |
1999 |
Buy |
| Off One’s Tits: Ill-Considered Rants And Raves from a Graceless Oaf Named John Birmingham |
2002 |
Buy |
| Dopeland; Taking The High Road Through Australia’s Marijuana Culture |
2003 |
Buy |
| How to Be a Writer |
2016 |
Buy |
| Stranger Thingies: From Felafel to Now |
2018 |
Buy |
| The Seven Stages of Drinking Martinis. |
2018 |
Buy |
| On Father |
2019 |
Buy |
Quarterly Essay Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| In Denial |
2001 |
Buy |
| Appeasing Jakarta |
2001 |
Buy |
| The Opportunist |
2001 |
Buy |
| Rabbit Syndrome |
2001 |
Buy |
| Beyond Belief |
2002 |
Buy |
| Girt By Sea |
2002 |
Buy |
| Paradise Betrayed |
2002 |
Buy |
| Groundswell |
2002 |
Buy |
| Beautiful Lies |
2003 |
Buy |
| Bad Company |
2003 |
Buy |
| Whitefella Jump Up |
2003 |
Buy |
| Made in England |
2003 |
Buy |
| Sending Them Home |
2004 |
Buy |
| Mission Impossible |
2004 |
Buy |
| Latham’s World |
2004 |
Buy |
| Breach of Trust |
2004 |
Buy |
| Kangaroo Court |
2005 |
Buy |
| The Worried Well |
2005 |
Buy |
| Relaxed and Comfortable |
2005 |
Buy |
| A Time for War |
2005 |
Buy |
| What’s Left? |
2006 |
Buy |
| Voting for Jesus |
2006 |
Buy |
| The History Question |
2006 |
Buy |
| His Master’s Voice |
2007 |
Buy |
| Bipolar Nation |
2007 |
Buy |
| Reaction Time |
2007 |
Buy |
| Exit Right |
2007 |
Buy |
| Love & Money |
2008 |
Buy |
| Last Drinks |
2008 |
Buy |
| American Revolution |
2008 |
Buy |
| Now or Never |
2008 |
Buy |
| Quarry Vision |
2009 |
Buy |
| Radical Hope |
2009 |
Buy |
| Australian Story |
2009 |
Buy |
| What’s Right? |
2010 |
Buy |
| Power Trip |
2010 |
Buy |
| Power Shift |
2010 |
Buy |
| Trivial Pursuit |
2010 |
Buy |
| The Happy Life |
2011 |
Buy |
| Fair Share |
2011 |
Buy |
| Bad News |
2011 |
Buy |
| Man-Made World |
2011 |
Buy |
| Us and Them |
2012 |
Buy |
| After The Future |
2012 |
Buy |
| Not Dead Yet |
2013 |
Buy |
| Unfinished Business |
2013 |
Buy |
| Great Expectations |
2013 |
Buy |
| The Prince |
2013 |
Buy |
| Found in Translation |
2013 |
Buy |
| That Sinking Feeling |
2014 |
Buy |
| Dragon’s Tail |
2014 |
Buy |
| A Rightful Place |
2014 |
Buy |
| Clivosaurus |
2014 |
Buy |
| Dear Life |
2015 |
Buy |
| Blood Year |
2015 |
Buy |
| Faction Man |
2015 |
Buy |
| Political Amnesia |
2015 |
Buy |
| Balancing Act |
2016 |
Buy |
| Stop at Nothing |
2016 |
Buy |
| Firing Line |
2016 |
Buy |
| Enemy Within |
2016 |
Buy |
| The Australian Dream |
2016 |
Buy |
| The White Queen |
2017 |
Buy |
| The Long Goodbye |
2017 |
Buy |
| Moral Panic 101 |
2017 |
Buy |
| Without America |
2017 |
Buy |
| Moment of Truth |
2018 |
Buy |
| Dead Right |
2018 |
Buy |
| Follow the Leader |
2018 |
Buy |
| Net Loss |
2018 |
Buy |
| Australia Fair |
2019 |
Buy |
| The Prosperity Gospel |
2019 |
Buy |
| Men at Work |
2019 |
Buy |
| Red Flag |
2019 |
Buy |
| Cry Me a River |
2020 |
Buy |
| The Coal Curse |
2020 |
Buy |
| The End of Certainty |
2020 |
Buy |
| The High Road |
2020 |
Buy |
| Getting to Zero |
2021 |
Buy |
| Exit Strategy |
2021 |
Buy |
| Top Blokes |
2021 |
Buy |
| The Reckoning |
2021 |
Buy |
| Not Waving, Drowning |
2022 |
Buy |
| Sleepwalk to War |
2022 |
Buy |
| Uncivil Wars |
2022 |
Buy |
| Lone Wolf |
2022 |
Buy |
| The Wires That Bind |
2023 |
Buy |
| Voice of Reason |
2023 |
Buy |
| Lifeboat |
2023 |
Buy |
| The Great Divide |
2023 |
Buy |
| Bad Cop |
2024 |
Buy |
| Highway to Hell |
2024 |
Buy |
| High Noon |
2024 |
Buy |
| Minority Report |
2024 |
Buy |
| Losing It |
2025 |
Buy |
| Hard New World |
2025 |
Buy |
| Woodside vs the Planet |
2025 |
Buy |
| The Good Fight |
2025 |
Buy |
| On Australia and Asia |
2026 |
Buy |
Short Blacks Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice |
2001 |
Buy |
| Prosper: A Voyage at Sea |
2015 |
Buy |
| The One Day |
2015 |
Buy |
| The Brave Ones |
2015 |
Buy |
| Cypherpunk Revolutionary: On Julian Assange |
2015 |
Buy |
| The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco |
1996 |
Buy |
| Sleeper Agent: An Audible Original |
2021 |
Buy |
Short Stories/Novellas#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Here Be Monsters |
2008 |
Buy |
| A Captain of the Gate |
2011 |
Buy |
| Fortune and Glory |
2018 |
Buy |
Sleeper Agent Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Sleeper Agent |
2021 |
Buy |
| Vengeance |
2024 |
Buy |
Standalone Novels#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco |
1996 |
Buy |
The Cruel Stars Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| The Javan War |
2024 |
Buy |
| The Cruel Stars |
2019 |
Buy |
| The Shattered Skies |
2022 |
Buy |
| The Forever Dead |
2024 |
Buy |
| The Brave Ones |
2015 |
Buy |
Without Warning Reading Order#
| Title |
Published |
Buy on Amazon |
| Without Warning |
2009 |
Buy |
| After America |
2010 |
Buy |
| Angels Of Vengeance |
2012 |
Buy |
John Birmingham is an Australian writer who works across military science fiction, alternate history, thrillers, and non-fiction. He first gained attention with He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (1994), a darkly funny memoir of share house living across Australia. The book became a cult hit and was later adapted into a film and a stage play. His non-fiction also includes Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney, which won the National Award for Non-Fiction at the Adelaide Festival of the Arts.
Birmingham moved into genre fiction with the Axis of Time trilogy, starting with Weapons of Choice in 2004. The series sends a multinational naval task force from 2021 back to the Pacific in 1942, where their advanced technology and knowledge of the future destabilize both sides of World War II. He followed this with the Without Warning trilogy (2009-2012), set in a world where an energy wave destroys most of North America just before the 2003 Iraq invasion. Both series show his ability to blend large-scale military action with geopolitical speculation.
His later fiction includes the Dave vs. the Monsters trilogy, a horror-action series about an oil rig worker who gains superhuman abilities during a monster invasion, and The Cruel Stars, a space opera trilogy set in a far-future human civilization under attack. Birmingham has also written the End of Days techno-thriller series, the Sleeper Agent series for Audible, and numerous short fiction pieces. He remains a prolific contributor to Australian journalism and cultural commentary through the Quarterly Essay series and other publications.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is John Birmingham best known for?
Birmingham is best known for the Axis of Time trilogy, an alternate history series where a multinational naval task force from 2021 is accidentally transported back to the Battle of Midway in 1942, and the Without Warning trilogy, where a mysterious energy wave wipes out most of North America on the eve of the Iraq War.
What order should I read John Birmingham's books?
Start with the Axis of Time trilogy (Weapons of Choice, Designated Targets, Final Impact) or the Without Warning trilogy. His other major series include Dave vs. the Monsters and The Cruel Stars. His non-fiction debut He Died with a Felafel in His Hand is also widely read.
Has John Birmingham written non-fiction?
Yes, Birmingham started as a non-fiction writer. He Died with a Felafel in His Hand (1994) is a comic memoir about share house living in Australia that was adapted into a film. He also wrote Leviathan, an award-winning history of Sydney, and contributes regularly to the Quarterly Essay series.