Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice | 2001 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 2 | Prosper: A Voyage at Sea | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 3 | The One Day | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 4 | The Brave Ones | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 5 | Cypherpunk Revolutionary: On Julian Assange | 2015 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 6 | The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco | 1996 | John Birmingham | Buy |
| 7 | Sleeper Agent: An Audible Original | 2021 | John Birmingham | Buy |
Short Blacks is John Birmingham’s series of brief e-books, named after the Australian term for a small, strong coffee. Each entry is a quick read, designed to be finished in a single sitting. The series covers a wide range of material, from science fiction stories to journalism, memoir, and cultural commentary.
The fiction entries include works like “Regions of Thick-Ribbed Ice” and “The Brave Ones,” while the non-fiction side covers topics from Julian Assange to Australian history. “The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco,” originally published in 1996, was one of Birmingham’s early humorous works and sits alongside his later genre fiction in this collection.
Birmingham has used the Short Blacks format to publish work that falls outside the scope of his novel-length series. The format suits his range as a writer, allowing him to move between genres and tones without the commitment of a full book. Readers new to Birmingham can sample these to get a sense of his varied interests before diving into his longer series.