Brian Falkner

Author. Storyteller. Writing Coach.

Books by Brian Falkner

The Hunt for the Ballamanana
The Hunt for the Ballamanana
In a world where science has run amok, producing weird animal hybrids like bumblebeagles, quokkadiles, and hippopotamice, one mad scientist has gone even further and started crossing plants with animals. Before you can say ‘crikeydoodle’, Charlie, Georgia and their pet kangarooster are off on a rocket powered blimp on the most epic adventure ever, with the fate of the human race at stake.
More Info
Katipo Joe: Blitzkreig
Katipo Joe: Blitzkreig
Joseph St George is a young New Zealander, the son of diplomats in 1930s Berlin. But the Nazis are on the rise and the world is on a spinning path to destruction. Joe’s world is about to change, violently. After a narrow escape from Germany with his mother, Joe is recruited by British Intelligence and given a mission to infiltrate the Hitler Youth movement.
More Info
Katipo Joe: Spycraft
Katipo Joe: Spycraft
"I have been accused of whitewashing the Nazi leadership in my memoirs. Some people say I make them seem human. But therein lies the problem. I saw these men up close. They were human. If we think of them only as monsters and demons we may lose sight of the fact that they were very much like you and I. They had the same number of eyes, ears and limbs. If we forget what humans are capable of, we risk it happening all over again."
More Info
Katipo Joe: Wolf's Lair
Katipo Joe: Wolf's Lair
"The third beheading I witnessed during the war was the only one that really mattered, the only person who was close to me" —From the memoirs of Joseph St George. The harrowing and thrilling story of Joseph (Katipo) St George continues. Joe must use all his skills and put not only his own life at risk, but the lives of the people he most cares about.
More Info
Shooting Stars
Shooting Stars
Egan Tucker is fifteen and has been in hiding his entire life. He has never known television, the Internet or even electricity. He has never seen hot and cold running water or a flush toilet. The boundaries of his world are the hills that surround the tiny valley he calls home. But Egan's life is about to change.
More Info
Brainjack
Brainjack
In this dystopic near-future, neuro-headsets have replaced computer keyboards. It's the Internet at the speed of thought. As teen hacker Sam Wilson becomes familiar with the new technology, he has a terrifying realization: when you can plug your brain into the internet, what's to stop hackers from hacking into your mind?
More Info
The Tomorrow Code
The Tomorrow Code
Tane and Rebecca aren't sure what to make of it. The message looks like nothing more than a random collection of alternating digits. As they work to decode it, and the ones that follow, it slowly it becomes clear, the messages are from the future! They are being sent back in time!
More Info
The Most Boring Book in the World
The Most Boring Book in the World
It all started with a book. The most boring book in the world. So boring that nobody would ever read it – which makes it the perfect place to hide a terrible secret. Teenagers Luke and Tommy stumble across this lost book, worth millions and somehow mysteriously connected to Leonardo da Vinci.
More Info
1917: Machines of War
1917: Machines of War
It is 1917 and the Great war is a jagged scar across the face of Europe. Soldiers cower in mud-filled trenches, hurling bullets across the war-torn landscape. Above them flies 17-year-old New Zealander Bob Sunday, of the Royal Flying Corps. Before long, Bob finds himself flying against the great German air aces, including the infamous Red Baron, as their warplanes whirl above the battlefields of Arras, Passchendaele and Cambrai.
More Info
Maddy West
Maddy West
Maddy West can speak every language in the world. When she is asked to translate some ancient scrolls, Maddy is excited. But the scrolls hide many secrets. Secrets that send Maddy on a wild adventure with a stowaway ninja, a cheeky monkey, a Bulgarian wrestler, and a fiendish witch.
More Info
Northwood
Northwood
Cecilia Undergarment likes a challenge. So when she discovers a sad and neglected dog, she is determined to rescue him. No matter what. But her daring dog rescue lands her in deep trouble: lost in the dark forest of Northwood. A forest where those who enter never return.
More Info
Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep
Andromeda Bond in Trouble Deep
When 12-year-old Andromeda is selected for the world’s first real life, zero gravity, live-streamed, video game, she must battle not only other players, but a villain far more dangerous and insidious than anything she could possibly imagine.
More Info
The Assault
The Assault
Recon Team Angel: Book One. Humanity is losing a war against alien invaders. A team of six teenagers has been chosen to inflitrate the enemy's headquarters in the heart of the Australian Outback. But from the start, the recon mission goes terribly wrong and the team is forced to ask: who among them is a traitor?
More Info
Task Force
Task Force
Recon Team Angel: Book Two. The Angel Team are back behind enemy lines as part of Operation Magnum, the most audacious military mission of all time. But as the ill-fated mission runs into trouble, Lt Ryan Chisnall is forced to make a terrible decision. A decision that could have dire consequences and result in the ultimate sacrifice.
More Info
Ice War
Ice War
Recon Team Angel: Book Three. It is winter of 2033 and Recon Team Angel is on its most dangerous mission yet.
On Little Diomede Island - the control centre for the Bering Strait - something is not right. Two SEAL teams have vanished, and Recon Team Angel has been secreted into the frozen landscape to investigate.
In these subarctic wastelands they will need every ounce of their courage and determination. If Bzadian forces manage to cross the strait and enter the Americas, then the planet will be lost.
WHO WILL WIN THE ICE WAR?
More Info
Vengeance
Vengeance
Recon Team Angel: Book Four. For thirteen years the war with the Bzadians has devastated the Earth. Now, for the first time, humans may have the upper hand. The Angels must go behind enemy lines once again. This time to Canberra, the beating heart of the Bzadian Empire. It is their final mission: a top-secret delivery to a deep-cover spy.
More Info
Cassie Clark
Cassie Clark
Cassie has survived a hit and run but now she hears her father has disappeared - supposedly run off with a news reporter. As a senior congressman and Speaker of the House, her father is an important player in the tense world of American politics. Cassie knows he would not walk away from his career or his family and she is determined to find out what really happened. But there are bigger players who are equally determined to stop her, and she no longer has a security detail ...
More Info
The Flea Thing
The Flea Thing
Twelve-year-old Daniel wants to play professional rugby league. Of course he is far too young, but Daniel has a secret, and to everyone's amazement ends up on the team. But that's just where the fun begins! This book is published in New Zealand as 'Henry and the Flea' and in the rest of the world as 'The Flea Thing'. But that's just where the fun begins!
More Info
The Real Thing
The Real Thing
Fizzer Boyd has a really cool ability. He is an expert at telling one soft drink from another, which is a lot of fun, but not all that useful. But then the only three people in the world who know the secret formula for Coca-Cola are kidnapped. Suddenly Fizzer is in hot demand as the Coca-Cola company tries to work out its own recipe, and before too long, the search for the missing recipe becomes a matter of life and death!
More Info
The Super Freak
The Super Freak
“My name is Jacob John Smith, and this is the story of the crime of the century.” Jacob is tired of getting into trouble. He’s fed up with being pushed around and hassled by Blocker - the school bully. But then he discovers he has a special power. Will he use it to be a superhero? Or a supervillain? Either way, life for Jacob is never going to be the same.
More Info
Rampage at Waterloo
Rampage at Waterloo
What if the power to control the most terrifying animals in history fell into the hands of one of the most brilliant and ferocious military leaders of all time? * WINNER of the Young Adult section of the New Zealand Children's Book Awards * Shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards * A Junior Library Guild Selection
More Info
Clash of Empires
Clash of Empires
England stands alone, but an invasion is looming. Its only hope is a secret attack deep inside enemy territory, to the very heart of Napoléon's terrifying new army. In the wake of Napoléon's crushing victory at Waterloo, the vicious French general Marc Thibault and his brigade of giant carnivorous battlesaurs have struck terror across Europe.
More Info
That Stubborn Seed of Hope
That Stubborn Seed of Hope
A collection of gripping short stories themed around fear and hope written by internationally acclaimed children's author Brian Falkner. A boy helps his sister disguise her birthmark on her first day of school. A seventeen-year-old awakens to find himself trapped in an elderly body. A teenage girl discovers her boyfriend has a life-threatening virus the day after they share their first kiss. A high school student tries to communicate to his hospitalised brother who is in a vegetative state.
More Info
Isolation
Isolation
In a post-Covid world we have become complacent, but that is about to change. Whatever this is, it is new and terrifying. When the disease arrives on Australian shores, three very diverse people: a free-spirited sailor; a girl from a strict religious community; and a social outcast on the run from the police, are thrown together in a desperate race for survival. Tense, shocking and deeply moving, Isolation offers a glimpse of an all too possible near future.
More Info
The Hunt for the Ballamanana - Full Colour
The Hunt for the Ballamanana - Full Colour
In a world where science has run amok, producing weird animal hybrids like bumblebeagles, quokkadiles, and hippopotamice, one mad scientist has gone even further and created ‘planimals’, crossing plants with animals. Before you can say ‘crikeydoodle’, Charlie, Georgia and their pet kangarooster are off on a rocket powered blimp on the most epic adventure ever, with the fate of the human race at stake. A thrilling new junior/middle-grade adventure with 70+ stunning full colour illustrations.
More Info
The Hunt for the Ballamanana - Illustrated Edition
The Hunt for the Ballamanana - Illustrated Edition
In a world where science has run amok, producing weird animal hybrids like bumblebeagles, quokkadiles, and hippopotamice, one mad scientist has gone even further and created ‘planimals’, crossing plants with animals. Before you can say ‘crikeydoodle’, Charlie, Georgia and their pet kangarooster are off on a rocket powered blimp on the most epic adventure ever, with the fate of the human race at stake. A thrilling new junior/middle-grade adventure with 70+ stunning illustrations.
More Info
Ballamanana Activity Book
Ballamanana Activity Book
Get ready for a wild adventure in the world of 'The Hunt for the Ballamanana!' This action-packed activity book is bursting with crazy hybrid creatures, brain-bending puzzles, quizzes and secret codes.
More Info
Write Like an Author
Write Like an Author
Write like a Boss, Write like a Champion, Write like an AUTHOR! The internationally acclaimed middle-grade writing course that shows you how to write stories the way professional authors do. International, award winning author and writing coach Brian Falkner takes you on a journey of fun and discovery, learning how to create, develop and write awesome stories.
More Info