Review: Fail State by John Birmingham
John Birmingham’s infectious energy and rough humour make him a safe bet for me and for you too, provided you have excellent taste for epic space operas/future histories/apocalyptic wars laced with extreme violence and big ’splosions.
Much water has run under the bridge in the decades since he wrote the cult classic of sharehouse life, He Died With a Felafel in His Hand. He’s released several other nonfiction books, he penned a Fairfax column for many years and wrote the Axis of Time fiction trilogy (Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1 and sequels).
But in a move separating him quite radically from other commercially successful Aussie authors, he then all but set fire to the bridge itself, snubbing traditional publishers to release numerous novels and novellas not only self-published, but exclusively in ebook or audiobook format, even dabbling in practices very new to the industry in Australia: such as crowdfunding through arts platform Patreon and having fans “beta read” his drafts. His no-bullshit and longstanding blog Cheeseburger Gothic has delivered him the loyal and solid audience base that has enabled such daring moves.
His 2016 How To Be A Writer (Who smashes deadlines, crushes editors and lives in a solid gold hovercraft) details how and why he has made some of these moves and is a still-relevant take on this country's industry; though that, and his current sci-fi series The Cruel Stars, were released in paperback by traditional publishers.
Preamble aside, we’re today looking at Fail State, the second in his End Of Days trilogy, as yet only released in ebook and audio. The series is Birmingham’s answer to Stephen King's The Stand, his frolic with a format King has enjoyed wild success with: big ensemble casts of ordinary people racing through their own tiny ground view of an apocalypse. Some end up permanent, their storylines intersecting; some ultimately prove only scene-setting vignettes (often with agreeably grisly ends); but the reader's fascinated by all.
In Zero Day Code (audio, book 1), this ragtag cast raced to escape the cities and find safety as a cyber-attack dismembered America with terrifying swiftness (it's so gripping I won't spoil it with detail).
I eagerly awaited Fail State (audio and ebook, book 2) and myself tore through it with equally terrifying swiftness, loving finding out what happened next and how the characters connected. My only beef is with the proofreader for Fail State: the ebook has many typos.
But the plotting is tight, characterisation sound, the humour like an ice bucket emptied over your head. It’s a perfect example of John Birmingham’s unmistakable, vivid style which only sharpens as he produces novels of increasing complexity and sophistication.
Australia seems to agree: Fail State and American Kill Switch (audio, book 3, now out, argh, I’m so behind) are Audible bestsellers, with some excellent narration by Robert Degas not hurting at all. So try the series: a furiously fast offering from one of Australia's most inventive and savagely funny writers.