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John Birmingham

Goodreads Author

Born

in Liverpool, England, The United Kingdom

Website

http://www.cheeseburgergothic.com/

Twitter

JohnBirmingham

Genre

Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller

Member Since

October 2014

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John Birmingham grew up in Ipswich, Queensland and was educated at St Edmunds Christian Brother's College in Ipswich and the University of Queensland in Brisbane. His only stint of full time employment was as a researcher at the Defence Department. After this he returned to Queensland to study law but he did not complete his legal studies, choosing instead to pursue a career as a writer. He currently lives in Brisbane.

While a law student he was one of the last people arrested under the state's Anti Street March legislation. Birmingham was convicted of displaying a sheet of paper with the words 'Free Speech' written on it in very small type. The local newspaper carried a photograph of him being frogmarched off to a waiting police paddy wagon ...more

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John Birmingham’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 50,766 ratings · 3,895 reviews · 77 distinct works • Similar authors

	Weapons of Choice (Axis of Time, #1) 3.91 avg rating — 5,761 ratings — published 2004 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Designated Targets (Axis of Time, #2) 4.07 avg rating — 3,905 ratings — published 2005 — 27 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Final Impact (Axis of Time, #3) 4.06 avg rating — 3,628 ratings — published 2006 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	He Died with a Felafel in His Hand 3.67 avg rating — 3,910 ratings — published 1994 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cruel Stars (The Cruel Stars, #1) 4.07 avg rating — 3,403 ratings — published 2019 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Without Warning (The Disappearance, #1) 3.79 avg rating — 3,516 ratings — published 2009 — 39 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Zero Day Code (End of Days, #1) 4.03 avg rating — 2,990 ratings — published 2019 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	After America (The Disappearance, #2) 3.79 avg rating — 2,503 ratings — published 2010 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Fail State (End of Days, #2) 3.97 avg rating — 2,035 ratings — published 2019 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Emergence (David Hooper, #1) 3.68 avg rating — 2,068 ratings — published 2014 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by John Birmingham…

2952 posts
John Birmingham's Blog

The Time-Traveling Aircraft Carrier is back... again

Just a heads up for any Axis of Time fans, the latest in the series, World War 3.2, is now out. Phil Kolhammer punching on with Joe McCarthy, Slim Jim Davidson living large, and the return of two fan favourites you thought I killed off twenty years ago.World War 3.2 Read more of this blog post »

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Published on September 09, 2025 23:00

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Series by John Birmingham

Axis of Time (8 books)
by

John Birmingham (Goodreads Author)

4.02 avg rating — 16,677 ratings

The Disappearance (3 books)
by

John Birmingham (Goodreads Author)

3.80 avg rating — 7,669 ratings

End of Days (3 books)
by

John Birmingham (Goodreads Author)

4.01 avg rating — 6,616 ratings

The Cruel Stars (4 books)
by

John Birmingham (Goodreads Author)

4.14 avg rating — 5,006 ratings

David Hooper (3 books)
by

John Birmingham (Goodreads Author)

3.80 avg rating — 4,842 ratings

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John is Currently Reading

John Birmingham is currently reading

Rome: A Cultural, Visual, and Personal History

by Robert Hughes

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Jan 25, 2020 02:48AM

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Zone One

by Colson Whitehead (Goodreads Author)

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Aug 16, 2017 06:36PM

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The Force

by Don Winslow (Goodreads Author)

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Jun 22, 2017 02:13AM

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John’s Recent Updates

John Birmingham answered JVerkuilen's question: I'm looking forward to the next Sleeper Agent and whenever World War 3.X comes to audiobook. Any notion of when that'll be? Sleeper3 is being recorded this week, so it should drop pretty soon. And I sent off the audio manuscripts for 3.1 and 3.2 about two weeks ago, so I'd expect them to come out soon, since I've been paid for them! WW 3.3 will be out in November. I'm so See Full Answer
Oct 06, 2025 04:11PM · 4 likes · like

John Birmingham answered JVerkuilen's question:

I'm looking forward to the next Sleeper Agent and whenever World War 3.X comes to audiobook. Any notion of when that'll be?

Sleeper3 is being recorded this week, so it should drop pretty soon. And I sent off the audio manuscripts for 3.1 and 3.2 about two weeks ago, so I'd expect them to come out soon, since I've been paid for them! WW 3.3 will be out in November. I'm so See Full Answer

Oct 06, 2025 04:11PM · 4 likes · like

More of John's books…

Quotes by John Birmingham (?)

“300 million people turned into jelly by The Wave and Rupert Murdoch wasn't one of them. There is no god.”
― John Birmingham, Angels of Vengeance

9 likes

“the rumor you most want to believe is the rumor you should be most skeptical of.”
― John Birmingham, Designated Targets

2 likes

“When a parent dies, for those left behind it can feel as though half the sky has fallen. My father was the sheltering sky, and beneath his mild firmament no storm ever raged, no hard rain fell.”
― John Birmingham, On Father

tags: fatherhood, grief, parenthood, son

2 likes

See all John Birmingham's quotes »

Polls

May Sci-Fi Theme -- Alternate History. And the nominees are...

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick

52 votes, 23.6%

The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson

47 votes, 21.4%

Boneshaker, by Cherie Priest

39 votes, 17.7%

The Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Michael Chabon

37 votes, 16.8%

Weapons of Choice, by John Birmingham

14 votes, 6.4%

Ruled Britannia, by Harry Turtledove

12 votes, 5.5%

Bitter Seeds, by Ian Tregillis

11 votes, 5.0%

Into the Storm: Destroyermen, Book I, by Taylor Anderson

8 votes, 3.6%

220 total votes

18 comments

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