Ten years on from He Died with a Felafel in his Hand, his seminal exposé of the grotty group-house reality that is the stuff of every landlord’s worst nightmares, John Birmingham has given us yet more evidence that he’s not stuck in any rut and has a number of strings to his bow. A Quarterly Essay here, a mammoth history of Sydney there, and now, in a fit of what he calls ‘creative laziness’, he’s come up with a genre novel that’s simultaneously clever, entertaining and thought-provoking. The premise may sound kind of familiar to those who read hi-tech, Clancy-style thrillers—due to a failed experiment by careless scientists a near-future multinational naval mission is sent back in time and finds itself in the midst of World War II. What Birmingham adds to the expected ingredients of this genre are believable characters that reflect on the many ethical and societal complications of time-travel, some nifty pop-cultural references and, hilarious to me but perhaps opaque to the general reader, a series of minor characters named after some of Australia’s most prominent authors and publishing personalities. This is a thriller that will appeal to those who already read the genre, but it may also convince sceptics that there can be more to the action novel than the body count.

Tim Coronel is the assistant editor of AB&P

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