I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My goodness I really enjoyed this one. We follow Adam, the first man, who has been alive all this time living many many different lives all over the world. His weary, indifferent view on the world and humanity actually makes him a wonderful character to follow. All of humanity are his children, but instead of being overly protective Adam is indifferent to them, and will kill without mercy or regret when he needs to. However, if its an animal Adam is protective and this is where his emotion really shines through. The surrounding characters are animals who were also in Eden and have been around as long as Adam have, including creatures like Butterfly, Pig and Magpie, they're all animals in human form. Adam deeply cares for these characters and they really are shining stars of this show.

I was absolutely pulled in by Birds of Paradise and I really struggled to put it down. This isn't a religious book, of course Langmead is taking ideas from Christianity, with Adam and Eve and Eden, but he crafts a whole other mythology around it, and at no point is this preaching anything. The mythology feels wonderfully original and it is wholly enthralling. The plot takes us on the hunt for pieces of Eden, and as we travel Adam gives some insight into how his history intertwines with various places, and I LOVED this. Reading about his many lives and how he integrated into each place was just such a great addition to the story.

Adam is a pretty passive main character, he's dragged along by the plot and Magpie is more the driving force here. Adam just tends to go where he's told and do what he's told to do, he generally isn't privvy to any plans and it fits his character extremely well. Having a passive main character that works this well is incredibly rare and its what really makes this book shine.