John Birmingham Books in Order

Birmingham turns Australian share-house life into a chain of filthy, funny disasters. It is a memoir of bad rentals, strange housemates, and the chaos of being young, broke, and rarely sensible.

Part satire, part memoir, this comic guide pokes at modern masculinity, bad habits, and cultural myths. Birmingham is funny, blunt, and very willing to embarrass himself.

The share-house circus returns as Birmingham heads into further misadventure with old friends, old grudges, and very little dignity. It is louder, messier, and a bit more reflective than his first memoir.

A rambunctious history of Sydney, told through crime, politics, class, vice, and boomtown ambition. Birmingham treats the city like a living thing, full of swagger, violence, and reinvention.

Birmingham examines Australia's role in the East Timor tragedy with anger, close argument, and a sharp eye for political cowardice. It is short, forceful nonfiction about policy and consequences.

This collection gathers Birmingham's journalism, columns, and essays, mixing politics, pop culture, travel, and personal stories. It is sharp, unruly, and usually very funny.

Sent to explore Australia's marijuana culture, Birmingham travels widely and talks to users, cops, activists, and politicians. The result is part road trip, part social history, and part argument.

A naval task force from 2021 is thrown into the Battle of Midway, smashing open the timeline of World War II. Future weapons bring immediate advantages, but history refuses to stay under control.

In this essay, Birmingham looks at Australia as a military power and asks what kind of wars the country is prepared to fight. It is compact, direct, and politically charged.

With the future now loose in 1942, the Axis and Allies race to seize advanced weapons and change the war again. Nuclear secrets, shifting alliances, and global strategy push the new timeline toward catastrophe.

The war in the altered 1940s reaches its brutal endgame as old empires and new technologies collide. Victory is possible, but nobody is fighting for the world they once expected.

In this short, wild mash-up, the First Fleet sails into a storm and finds a future Sydney crawling with the undead. Muskets, marines, and convicts meet the apocalypse head-on.

On the eve of the Iraq War, a mysterious energy wave erases most of the continental United States. Around the world, scattered survivors and shocked governments scramble to understand what comes next.

With the United States shattered, warlords, militias, and foreign powers move into the vacuum. Several survivors fight to protect the people around them while the map of North America is redrawn by force.

A short piece about command under pressure, as one officer faces the human cost of holding the line when the world around him is starting to break apart.

The shattered American landscape is now a battleground of rival governments, militias, and revenge missions. Old survivors return for a last, bloody push to decide who will rule what remains.

In an alternate 1955, Prince Harry moves through a divided Rome of spies, assassins, and Cold War tension. One hidden industrial secret could give Stalin the power to break the balance of the world.

Dave Hooper is a broke offshore safety manager until he kills a demon and learns monsters are real. Hungover, outmatched, and unwilling, he becomes one of humanity's best chances in a very bad new world.

As hellish forces hit closer to home, Dave has to choose between saving the wider world and protecting his family. The monsters are bigger, the stakes are nastier, and the jokes stay dark.

Now a public hero after the battle in New Orleans, Dave lands in Las Vegas just as fresh monsters and political schemes close in. He needs allies, but almost every deal looks like a trap.

In this essay-length work, Birmingham looks at courage under pressure and the messy politics around it. It is compact, provocative, and more interested in people than slogans.

Game developer Cady McCall is yanked out of 2016 by deputy marshal John Titanic Smith, a man from the nineteenth century searching for his lost daughter. Their chase carries them across centuries and increasingly dangerous timelines.

This novella widens the monster war beyond Dave, showing how officials and operatives try to build rules for a crisis that refuses to behave. It adds another angle to the larger series conflict.

Prince Harry heads into the Middle East as Stalin reaches for a weapon that could lock his empire in place. Fighter jets, spies, and shattered history collide in a tight alternate-history thriller.

Birmingham mixes blunt career advice with jokes, war stories, and practical lessons about deadlines, editors, and getting paid. It is a writing book for people who want the job, not the fantasy.

With Europe divided and Stalin pushing west, Prince Harry races to stop a superweapon before it reshapes the Cold War for good. The novella moves quickly, from espionage to open confrontation.

This Dave vs. The Monsters novella follows Russian operative Ekaterina Varatchevsky after a demon attack changes her too. Suddenly superpowered, she becomes both a hunter and a target.

Dave Hooper heads into another ugly outbreak, this time in a place with a name that tells you exactly what kind of trouble to expect. It is monster hunting with rural chaos and Birmingham's usual foul humor.

In a broken future, Birmingham drops readers into a hard-bitten struggle where survival and ambition go hand in hand. It is a brisk, atmospheric tale with grit and dark humor.

This nonfiction collection gathers Birmingham's pieces on writing, politics, culture, and getting older without becoming entirely respectable. It is funny, cranky, and surprisingly reflective.

Cady McCall and John Titanic Smith keep chasing his lost daughter through a fractured timeline. Nazis, cults, and the strange custodians of time make every stop more dangerous.

A short, comic essay about what one drink turns into, and what that says about ambition, self-delusion, and bad decisions. Birmingham keeps it light, sharp, and knowingly ridiculous.

After his father's death, Birmingham writes about grief, depression, and the strange practical details of loss. It is personal, searching, and much quieter than many of his other books.

Centuries after a genocidal enemy was driven into deep space, the Sturm return and nearly wipe humanity out in a single strike. Five very different survivors have to work together if anyone is going to last.

Ten days after the network collapse, refugees, gangs, and local strongmen are reshaping the ruins of America. James, Jodi, and others keep moving, looking for safety that may not exist.

Cooper Fox is a small-town good guy with amnesia until violent strangers force open the truth about his past. As buried memories return, he learns he may be part of a much darker experiment.

A crippling cyberattack knocks out food, transport, and power, pushing modern cities toward starvation in days. Several survivors piece together what happened while the world unravels around them.

As the survivors finally begin to converge, a fascist militia rises inside the wreckage of the United States. The trilogy closes with a fight over what kind of country can exist after collapse.

Humanity's surviving heroes try to rebuild after the Sturm assault, only to find the enemy is still strong and other threats are waking up. The sequel goes broader without losing the personal stakes.

A decade after the timeline shattered, the alternate Cold War turns hot in a 1950s world armed with stolen future knowledge. Old veterans and new leaders are thrown into another global war.

The battered coalition that checked the Sturm once before faces the enemy's next push, with the fate of humanity and the wider galaxy on the line. It is the promised finale to the Cruel Stars story.

This prequel follows young Lucinda Hardy through the war that shaped her, mixing brutal space combat with memories of her childhood and academy years. It shows how she became the officer readers meet later.

Cooper Fox digs deeper into the program that made him, teaming up with ex-CIA operative Kristin Hegel to hunt the people behind it. Superhuman ability, corporate power, and conspiracy collide fast.

The war spreads across Europe and beyond as the West fights back with a strange mix of modern systems and mid-century muscle. Battles rage in every domain while spies and political enemies work in the shadows.

Six weeks into the new world war, exhausted allies try to hold the line against an enemy that knows too much history. This installment drops straight into the chaos and keeps the pressure on.