I liked this a lot more than i thought i would and that mostly comes down to it being very well written. Its rewarding reading a book that takes its time and explores that humanity of each situation, especially if its written beautifully. You can take a breath and savor a small moment, riding on the back of the characters emotion. It's relatable and that makes the story all the more engrossing.

Birds of Paradise introduces readers to Adam, the first human ever created, made long ago in the Garden of Eden. Having been alive for so long Adam is not the figure as depicted in the Bible, and seems to be coasting through life, living through one identity after another with no real aim of focus. This all changes, however, when Adam seems to snap one day and beats a film writer to death. Facing prison, Adam is approached by Raven, the first raven to ever exist; who like Adam was thrown out of Eden and now faces an immortal existence, able to change from animal to human at will.

Raven is able to arrange for Adam to avoid prison, but in return Adam will have to travel across the Atlantic to Scotland to help track down Raven's elusive brother, Magpie, who's been spending millions of his brothers money. Adam has to find Magpie and discover what he's been doing with Raven's money. Along the way Adam will meet up with some of the other former inhabitants of Eden, and discover a secret that will change things for them all forever.

The blurb on the back of Birds of Paradise compares the book to Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and whilst I've yet to read it (I know, I really should) from what I know of the book it's a really good comparison. The story feels strangely timeless, full of history and age, yet so steeped in the modern world. It feels like myth meeting everyday life, where the fantastical and wondrous can be hiding behind any corner, where any person could be something ancient and powerful.

Whilst there have been a lot of Adam and Eve re-tellings or re-imaginings over the years this is one really stands out because it gives life to the entirety of Eden, not just the human inhabitants. The story is as much about the animals, the beings that have existed through all of time and become part of the human world. It's them who really drive the story forward, who make things happen; Adam feels less of a protagonist, and more of a reactor, simply going along and seeing what happens.

But this isn't a bad thing, and certainly not a weakness for the book. Readers very quickly learn that Adam has lived so long, seen so much, loved and lost time and time again that he's almost given up. Nothing much really surprises him anymore. He hardly feels passion, he struggles to make connections with the humans that populate the world, and sees little reason to. The book is as much about Adam learning to recapture some of his old life, the things that gave him purpose and joy before, as much as it is about unravelling the mystery of what Magpie is up to.

Birds of Paradise doesn't take a kind view to immortality. It presents the idea of living forever as as much a curse as anything else. The inhabitants of Eden don't age, they don't get sick, but they can be killed. If someone hurts them enough, uses such brutal force, they can be killed. The only way for them to find an end to their long existence is to go through a brutal death. So we have characters who are seeking out little joys in life, things that can give them happiness, but it doesn't always seem to work. There are characters who are barely holding on to their humanity, existing as almost feral creatures, because they just don't know what else to do with themselves.


Because of this the book has a kind of melencholy feel to it at times, it has such beauty and wonder, yet can leave you feeling like you've witnessed something awful and heartbreaking too. The characters in this book might be immortal, might be god-like to us, but they can hurt and suffer as much as anyone; and that, like them, can last forever. 

Birds of Paradise is a book that I was very interested in, but wasn't expecting to grab me as much as this one did. It had so much depth to it, so much heart. Oliver K. Langmead talks about how the book took over a decade to write in the Afterward, and I can believe that, I can believe that a story this complex, layered, and beautiful took so long to create, and was such a passion project that he refused to give up on it for so long. A truly amazing piece of writing.

Birds of Paradise is one of those magical books where you just can’t wait to turn the page and see what happens next, but equally wish you could freeze the moment so the story doesn’t have to end!

The story centres on the first man, Adam, as he is saved from a legal issue of his own making and takes on a new identity with the assistance of his friend, Rook, head of Corvid and Corvid legal firm (and one of the original animals from Eden).

We journey with Adam as he initially heads off in search of Rook’s missing troublemaker brother, Magpie, and eventually gets caught up in an adventure to gather the surviving pieces of Eden and to secure the survival of the original creatures. Warning note to some readers: It does have some quite brutal scenes!

Adam faces challenges, not least of which is his own damaged memory, but is helped along the way by an array of vibrant and unique characters, including Butterfly and Pig, who are not only animals from Eden but also able to take on human form.

The personalities of each of the animals were beautifully crafted – my favourites being Owl, Rook and Magpie.

For a book on Adam, Eve and Eden, it was also pleasantly not overly religious but carefully mingled biblical themes with mythology, fantasy, magic and drama to create a gripping story in the same vein as American Gods.

One of my favourite books of the year so far!

Urban fantasy is often felt these days to be about the inserting of fantasy worlds into our own. What if a wizard was a detective; what if folk tales were living on our streets. Its often the insertion of the magical into our world. That is the hook. What I enjoyed the most about Oliver K Langmead’s weird mythical heist tale Birds of Paradise is this is more the tale of immortals who found we humans had taken over their world which has consequences for both parties.

Adam the First Man is currently working as a movie star’s bodyguard when an encounter with a very slimy screenwriter results in death and imprisonment. But being an immortal has some benefits and soon Adam is released by his friends and constant companies the animals of Eden that change form into human beings and have accompanied his long life. Adam is asked to find one named Magpie who seems to have had a secret project running this century and that eventually sets him into conflict with a group of billionaires all vying for the last remnants of Eden itself.

Birds of Paradise is not your usual tale of immortals and mortals vying for power. Langmead opts for in some ways a leisurely road movie into Adam’s life that covers several months as he moves from the US back to the UK. For a novel that focuses on heists the pace is measured and often dreamlike as we move from place to place seeking answers from eerie Scottish graveyards to a luscious garden in an abandoned football stadium. At the heart of this is Adam who for the First Man seems someone quite disconnected from the world far more interested in gardens and plants than the humans he disguises himself amongst. Adam seems quite a passive figure often being told what to do rather than leading the action, but his immortality gives him strength and vast powers of recovery that his other immortal friends often see as providing useful muscle on their own secret projects. Despite the focus on physical strength and violence we also get a sense of someone who has lived so many centuries that he feels very little in common with people which may explain why sometimes he is just happy to kill them if they prove troublesome – he finds diaries and knows all that are mentioned are long since dead. He is a puzzle - a man who can be suddenly capable of immense violence, kind to his friends and sees hope for humanity when he accompanies a pride festival yet pestered by a constant guilt. A lot of this tale is unpeeling who is the First Man really is.

The other draw for me was how Langmead merges the fantastical of Eden with the mundane world we live in. In this mythology all the creature of Eden from the artistic Butterfly to the flighty Crow all went with Adam and Eve after Eden’s fall and have been travelling in the world ever since. Finding the forms these people have taken and what they do with their lives now humans are everywhere a delight and intriguingly they seem perhaps more invested in the world than Adam ever seems to be. One key element is the law firm Corvid & Corvid run by Messrs Rook and Magpie that keeps the immortal’s affairs going and occasionally savagely destroying anyone who gets in their way. I really enjoyed their scenes and in particular the mercurial Magpie who Adam searches for and gives him a further mission that drives the story. We move across the UK from Scottish towns to London and Manchester all given a refreshingly unreal description that captures the souls of the place. London being many places at once. Manchester quite fractured in styles and then the more beautiful outside places such as Yorkshire Moors or lost forests giving a feel of a tale being about nature versus human. Langmead captures sense of place without going into overt description and it gives the locations an unusual magical property that is weird and immersive.

The crux of the tale for me was Adam’s conflict with the rich Sinclair family. Adam being very passive it is initially hard to see why he would get into a war with anyone, but we find out that parts of Eden have survived it’s fall and these elements of nature that have a greater sense of reality than anything else are highly prized by all sides – a touch of the divine on earth. Langmead raises some interesting themes on the nature of humanity – we tame worlds for our advantage and trample over beauty for our own needs often killing the rarest of creatures for fun or pettiness. Adam remembers a beautiful garden he spent years on and then found during a world war on his return that it had been turned simply into a vegetable allotment. In the present day the Sinclairs and their other rich friends take the world for their own desires not to share but for their own indulgence which is not a million miles away from our current crop of nouveau rich planning their hideaways on earth or further afield in space. The real humanity that Adam does side with is the playful loving side of us he sees in various Pride marches that wrap around a centrepiece theft in broad daylight that is at the heart of the book. Those who share and spread joy are the more deserving of survival and help aid unexpectedly taking down the rich’s dreams of glory leading to a painful and dramatic final confrontation.

As with Langmead’s Metronome this is an ambitious dreamlike journey into a world not quite our own and hovering over a deeper mythology that sounds familiar but does its own thing to make it more compelling. Langmead’s use of language and atmosphere to make the story work. Those seeking quips and action may be disappointed but for those who enjoy strange tales that feel on the edges of the fantastical will find much to enjoy. Strongly recommended.

Adam is the First Man, undying and aimlessly wandering around the world in search for meaning and a sense of peace. He lives many lives, essentially always alone, save from his brief encounters with other former residents of Eden: the animals that Adam named like Pig, Crow, Magpie, and Butterfly.

During the course of Langmead's novel, Adam travels around Scotland to find more scattered pieces of his lost Eden, as well as recovering some of his lost memories and reconnecting with his past. Langmead's prose is evocative and beautiful and Adam is a narrator in the tradition of American Gods' Shadow, private and contemplative, hardly the action hero that his built and physicality might lead someone to expect. Langmead, I think, handles the character type better than Gaiman did. When Adam feels distant, it is only highlighting his isolation and loneliness, the grief of his continuous existence, the aimlessness of living through age after age of a changing world.

I did not expect that this book would make me cry. It did. But it was also full of hope.

I received an arc of the novel from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for this opportunity!

‘Blossom falls, and cherries rain, and faces are raised to the sun, laughing.’

I thoroughly enjoyed the melancholic feel to the novel and how the concept of immortality was handled. Francesco Dimitri described the novel as between, ‘Plato and John Wick’ and while I agree that this would indeed make an action-packed film, I think it would make an equally interesting video game. Every setting was described with a great deal of care. Being Scottish, it was so nice to read a book where Scotland was featured so prominently in a fantastic text..

The characters were also well thought out and I greatly enjoyed the dialogue. Special shout out to Magpie’s silver sequinned jacket. Fashion icon? Absolutely. I'd have loved to have seen a bit more of Crow because I felt like she was especially fascinating, but the whole cast of characters were so unique that they all deserved their time in the spotlight.

Adam was an interesting protagonist as he wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but his characterisation was one of my favourite aspects of the book. Some readers may say that he coasts through certain chapters rather than taking the reins for himself, but I think Adam far preferred it this way: "enjoying the idea of being the man in the background of the book." In this sense, Adam desires almost desires to be an NPC and the novel explores how far this is possible when you are literally born to be the protagonist (he is the First Man in Creation, after all.)

I guessed the twist fairly early on but that’s a me problem because I enjoy playing detective and guessing ahead. Plus, I don’t think that the twist was the point in the novel as it is more about a journey of contemplative thought. Langmead is a talented wordsmith. The use of extended metaphors in this were truly lovely and an absolute joy to read. I love when novels describe paintings – I wrote my undergrad diss on ekphrastic portraits in literature, so the novel was right up my alley! If Langmead ever writes a sequel I’ll be here for it!

I highly recommend this enchanting and unique novel.

Follow my bookstagram for more: evacat_reads
Blog post pending.

Surprising and original, this book goes beyond boundaries and offer something quite unique and hard to categorize. The character were very likeable and the intrigue was... well intriguing, which might sound absurd, but honestly this isn't always the case. I would recommend this book!

I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley for an honest review.

Birds Of Paradise will probable sit in my thoughts for a while, there was a lot of hope that was shadowed by grief that had me in my feels. Through Adam and the first animals we explore the darker side of living for centuries, the weight of loss, finding something worth living for, and the passing of time. At this point Adam is just a passenger in his own life, drifting though time doing mundane things, longing to be reunited with Eve, reminiscing on his past identities, gardening and reading. Unlike Magpie who is incredibly lively and quirky and seems to always have somewhere to be and puts his all into his schemes and he leads Adam in trying to get back what was lost. This beautiful story had my emotions running on high and rooting for our band of lovable characters.

Birds of Paradise follows Adam. Yes, this Adam. The first man. Created before Death, Adam has lived countless lives. When his last job ends in a disaster, he takes on a new identity. This time, however, things get more complicated than usual. After meeting with The Rook, Adam starts a quest to recover scattered elements from the Garden of Eden.

The narrative moves smoothly between meditative and explosive. Adam is a HUGE man who loves gardening and peace but has no issues with a brutal fight. Exhausted by the endless death and destruction (of the Earth, of his past lives amongst humans), he misses Eve and his long-lost home.

Besides Adam, the story features his friends - Edenic creatures able to transform into humans at will. Most of them lead successful lives. Some, like Butterfly, Crab, or Pig prefer freedom and arts. No one should underestimate any of them. Those who do, suffer. Or die. Owl or Pig’s ferocity and ruthlessness in the fight result in a high body count. The Rook destroys his enemies through his lawyers. As a Senior Partner in Corvid & Corvid law office, he’ll own your life and wealth in a blink of an eye, having you on your knees begging for mercy.

The story focuses on the characters and their longing for Paradise. As the country floods once more, they cooperate to rebuild the Garden and stop bad people from doing bad things. In Birds of Paradise, antagonists are arrogant people positioning themselves above the rest of the creation.

I loved how the story connected mythology with everyday life and sorrows. While strongly influenced by Christian mythology, the book doesn’t feature god. It uses elements of fantasy, thriller, drama, and magical realism to tell an emotionally engaging and unique story. Highly recommended for readers looking for something fresh.

What a marvelous, fascinating, subversive telling of the Myth of Adam. The Garden of Paradise left Earth long ago, and those who lived there died, too, right? Not so, as Adam reminds us that he was made before death. Adam, of Paradise, still lives on the Earth, changing identities as needed, doing the work of man, and connecting with nature and gardens as is his wont. There is a brutality within Adam and also a gentleness; a willingness to kill and a desire to preserve. This is a hero journey after all, as Adam seeks to save his home by recovering the pieces of Paradise scattered across the Earth. He will need help, and he has it in Owl, Magpie, and others. The immortal exiles of Paradise may yet save it from destruction.

BIRDS OF PARADISE had me at the beginning. The story centers around Adam, the first man in creation, who is still walking around in modern day. The emotional and mental journey of Adam is unlike anything I've read in an Adult Fantasy book in a long time. Twists. Turns. Smooth prose. Elegant plot.

The official blurb: „Many millennia after the fall of Eden, Adam, the first man in creation, still walks the Earth – exhausted by the endless death and destruction, he is a shadow of his former hope and glory.”
After walking the Earth for millenia, Adam is almost a shadow of himself. He is still stronger than your average man, and yeah, he’s immortal, but mentally he is almost ready to give up on everything. After a violent incident while in the employ of a Hollywood star, Adam is contacted by one of the birds from the Garden and he is given an assignment.
The Animals from the Garden in this story are still here on Earth. They are representatives of their individual species, of course, but they can also take human form. While in human form they still keep some of the more characteristic traits of the animal they truly are.
Adam is tasked with finding one of the animals who has been spending strange amounts of money. After a road trip across America and a flight to England, he finds his quarry, but he also finds something unexpected – a plant from the Garden. A rose.
Adam and the Animals set out to find as many pieces of the Garden as possible. Of course, there are obstacles along the way.
The idea behind this book is really interesting. The concept of searching for the pieces of the Garden is enough to make one go out and buy this book. I also loved the animal/human characters in the book. Despite the fact of them being butterflies, pigs and ravens they were real. At times more real than Adam himself. And there we come across a problem.
Adam.
Adam is basically a brute force that is just along for the ride at times. I hope that was the point. Some disguised commentary on the superiority of animals over humans (?) perhaps. He could have been shown as more of a person. Just as the animals kept their traits when in human form, and plants from the Garden were almost Platonic ideals of each species, Adam should have been the most human human to ever human. He sadly is not. There were moments where it seemed he could be, but then the plot took off in another direction and all was lost.
While we are at the plot, there are issues there as well. Some of the lines of the blurb are misleading. There isn’t really a treasure hunt like element to the plot. Trying to gather two pieces of a Garden hardly a hunt makes.
Last but not least – the digressions. There are times in this book where it was obvious that the author wanted to give more character, colour and emotion to our protagonist through flashbacks, but all it served here, in my opinion, was to distract from the main plot and to make the reader care less for poor Adam. If those flashbacks had been moments when Adam had been on the verge of seeing a piece of the Garden perhaps, then that would have been better. But, then that would have been a completely different book and not the one we have before us.
I was sad that this did not live up to my expectations, but it was still a very intriguing read, for the idea if nothing else.

Long ago cast out of the Garden of Eden, Adam wanders the Earth, having lived hundreds of lifetimes amongst his innumerable children. Occasionally, he is accompanied on his long journey through existence by the creatures of Eden, who are able to take human form, their presence comforting but tinged with the sadness of what they have all lost. When Adam is tasked by Rook to track down his brother, Magpie, he discovers a piece of Eden, and with it a possible path to recovering some of what he has lost.

Before he can find any peace, however, Adam’s quest will take him from the United States and up the length of the UK, and it’s clear early on that this will be a journey to remember. Langmead’s prose is clear and direct almost to the point of starkness, not a word wasted as he steers the reader between moments that stun with their poignancy, vibrancy and beauty - often all at once. Everything is granted a kind of mythic resonance through his economy of prose, whether it be people, events or settings. One early scene, for example, in which Adam is transported in a prison truck and briefly regaled by his guard with the man’s life story, is particularly affecting, Adam feeling his own self almost subsumed by the guard’s and believing momentarily that he has become him. It’s an early demonstration of Adam’s complex relationship with humanity too, as he “feels for them” in both the sense that he appreciates their struggles and also, it seems, feels on their behalf. Adam is many things to humanity; father or primogenitor of course, but also so much more.

There’s a very doomed, tragic feeling that seems to cling to Adam, his inability to die whilst those around him wither and fall undoubtedly a curse rather than a blessing. He is tormented by grief and loss, usually until the actions of his children stir him from his dispassionate numbness and inspire him to acts of bloody fury and vengeance. He is larger than life in every sense, superhuman strength and resilience casting him as some kind of unforgiving force of nature. His moments of violence are bleak acts of blind rage that are shocking without being gratuitous, meted out as utterly uncomplicated and highly concentrated biblical-style wrath against those who wrong him or his friends. Make no mistake, Adam is not in the business of handing out moral lessons or wisdom to humanity, but that’s not to say there aren’t moments of hope and joy for him to experience as he goes about his quest.

Serving as a counterpoint to Adam’s more morose attitude is an eclectic collection of shapeshifters; the original menagerie of the Garden of Eden, which Adam was given authority to name, they add much charm to the story. Whether it’s the stalwart figures of Pig and Crab, or the eager and affectionate Butterfly, the supporting cast are varied and loveable, the virtues we whimsically impart to their animal incarnations resulting in personifications that feel distinct from one another but never sink into caricature. The birds of paradise themselves - Crow, Rook, Magpie and Owl - each have their own personalities when they are in their human form too, personalities which are likewise wrapped up in their true, animal forms. Magpie, for instance, is a little bit of a rascal, obsessively collecting expensive items more for the love of acquisition than anything. They frequently have their own stories too, perhaps about incidents in their past, which are delivered as fleeting, fable-like glimpses into lives well lived.

It’s difficult to overstate just how good Birds of Paradise is. There is a poetry to not just the prose but the plot itself, the events which unfold memorably potent and incredibly moving. It is immensely readable yet packed with subtlety and sharply defined imagery, a mesmerising work of sorrowful beauty and uplifting joy. Adam’s words are imbued with power; so too are those of Oliver K. Langmead. A stunning achievement.

Summary: Birds of Paradise stars Adam, the first man, as he joins with the animals he helped name to recover pieces of the garden of Eden in the present day. It is a beautiful exploration of death, grief and immortality, and probably the best book I’ve read so far this year.

Recommended for those who enjoyed Neil Gaiman’s American Gods
Not recommended if you want an upbeat read
Recommended if you like books with a strong emotional core
Not recommended if you cannot read books that include violence against animals
Birds of Paradise opens with a strong one-two punch. First, Adam and Eve exchange their own beating hearts in the garden of Eden. Then cut to the present, where Adam, working as a bodyguard, brutally murders someone harassing his starlet client. From there, Adam is saved from prison by his friend Raven, who acts as a lawyer and fixer for the remaining refugees from the garden of Eden (in this novel, all the animals from the garden of Eden can move from animal to human form, as well as a form that is a mix of both). Along with haunted Crow and bestial Owl, he is sent to the UK to find Magpie, who’s been spending a fair amount of Corvid and Corvid’s (a law firm ran by Raven) funds.

Adam is a broken, weary man. Many of his memories are hidden behind thorns of grief, brought on by the deaths of his friends, the original animals in the garden of Eden. Since they are all immortal, they can only be killed through violence, inevitably by Adam’s own descendants, the men and women that walk the earth. He spends much of the book in a haze, occasionally recalling some distant memory. I found it hard to connect with Adam at first – for the early sections of the book, he is merely going through the motions. Once I started to understand the motivations behind his grief and rage things clicked into place. When he finds that Magpie is collecting pieces of the garden of Eden, he becomes more driven – although he never truly shakes off the haze of sorrow. Given his experiences, it would have felt cheap for him to do so.

The supporting characters are where this book shines – Magpie is an absolute delight, mercurial and whimsical, yet deeply driven underneath. Raven, Crow and Owl are all well realised too, coming in and out of the story as things progress. Some of the animals we meet later are also firm favourites of mine. It’s especially impressive that with each character you feel the impact of the millennia upon them, and each is affected in different ways by the time. They’ve all had to live many, many different lives to avoid being noticed as immortals (facilitated by Corvid and Corvid).

The antagonists in this story, are of course, the people. Specifically a group of older rich people lead by a couple called Mr and Mrs Sinclair. These people covet the pieces of Eden, and believe strongly in the idea of man’s dominion over beast. They are resourceful and ruthless, and Adam has to find himself defending both the pieces of Eden and the creatures of Eden from them.

There’s something about the tone of the book that really drew me in – this perfect interweaving of mythic and mundane. At times the story feels biblical, in the way that the old testament stories might be interpreted today, all wrath, and pain and sacrifice. The only thing missing is God, which the book neatly sidesteps, although the implication is given that God left the beings of earth to their own devices once the apple was eaten.

I’m not sure if I’ve done this book justice in my review, but as one of my final thoughts, I’ll say this – I was drawn in emotionally to the characters on a very visceral level, which happens rarely for me. In particular the final chapters brought tears to my eyes, with a catharsis that, if not revelatory, was perfectly framed to impact me in just the right way.

I absolutely loved Birds of Paradise, only let down beginning that was slower to grab me than I would have liked. It’s at different times thoughtful, visceral, touching and whimsical, effortlessly shifting and mixing in a result that resonated with me strongly. I would recommend Birds of Paradise to pretty much anyone.

Rating: 9/10

I made it to 40% on my ereader, and if not for the blurb, I wouldn't have a clue what the plot was supposed to be. The potential story - the 'gather the lost pieces of Eden' - has barely been hinted at almost halfway through the book, so I have no idea how the rest of it can be pulled off without feeling rushed or cramped. Which is a little ironic, because the first half of the book moves so. Very. Slowly. I think the pacing is actually deliberate, an attempt to make the book feel dreamy, and to convey to the reader Adam's sense of displacement in the modern world, his disassociation from it. And I think it does do that.

The problem is that it's also mind-numbing. I was struggling not to fall asleep while I read - at 3pm. It's simply boring, which is impressive given the premise. Although there were hints of something worthwhile - the suggestion that Eve has been hugely misunderstood; the racism of those who insist on portraying Adam and Eve as white - the prose was not close to beautiful enough to capture and convey what it was trying to. So this one's a DNF for me.

I requested this book mostly on the basis of the cover, which I thought was gorgeous, and the fact that I quite liked Metronome (a previous Langmead book.) I wasn't sure how I'd find it, but I ended up really enjoying it.

Adam is the ancient, world-weary version of the First Man, who wanders the earth aimlessly and a bit hopelessly, doing various things and leading various lives. His memory doesn't work well, partly because he has just been alive so long.

The Adam/Eve retelling has bene done a lot, but I always welcome a fresh interpretation, and enjoyed this one--perhaps because, for once, it focused more on the animal figures and their sense of family with Adam.

The whole book is extremely sad. It is about loss, grief, decay, the passage of time, the futility of morality; it is about rebuilding hope and life from the ashes, again and again and again. Biblical myth and other myths are gently interwoven into the characters and their story, and there's an echo of Noah's arc in Adam's quest to rebuild paradise for his animal 'family'.

The abscene of God (who does get a mention) is stark, somewhere between damning and just sad.

Interestingly, Adam is a passive MC (reactive, not a driving force in the plot; that role belongs more to magpic). That works better than it sounds, and passive MCs are fairly rare. Last time I read a trad pub novel with a notably passive MC was China Mievill's "Embassytown". But it still works and is a good example of how to do it well. Adam is simply trying to survive, endure, and find happiness in his day to day, for much of the book, although of course many more serious events spring out of those efforts.

Some reviews have compared this to American Gods and I think that's accurate. It medidates on some of the same issues and has the same long, wandering journey feel, but through a distinctly British landscape rather than an American one.

What a book! I’m not quite sure what words to use to describe it. It’s certainly something new and unexpected. And look at that beautiful cover art! When I read the blurb, I just had to read it, and was very excited when my request for an eARC was approved. I was not disappointed.

Birds of Paradise opens with a hauntingly beautiful prologue in which Adam and Eve, still in the Garden, pull out their beating hearts and exchange them, before the story skips forward to modern times, when Adam is working as a bodyguard for a famous actress. The action then starts quite quickly after that, which took me a little by surprise, but I enjoyed being launched straight into the story. Now, I find this book hard to summarise, because the basic plot is quite simple (which is not a negative comment), and I don’t want to give too many things away. What I will say is that one of my favourite things about it was the fact that, as well as Adam and Eve being immortal, all the first creatures of Eden still live, wandering the earth, living life after life, because they existed before death. They can also take on human form, which is how Rook – the first one we meet – is both a bird and a partner in the law firm Corvid & Corvid along with his brother Magpie. Other recurring characters are Crow, Owl, Pig, Butterfly, and Crab, and I absolutely loved the interactions between Adam and his creatures. There is so much tenderness and respect there, which leads me to talk about Adam himself.

I’ve seen a plot summary of Birds of Paradise that describes it as “American Gods meets The Chronicles of Narnia,” and while I suppose the talking animals do recall C.S. Lewis’ work, I felt that Adam definitely reminded me of American Gods and it’s main character Shadow. Adam is described multiple times as being a very large man: tall, very muscular, intimidating, and very hard to buy clothes for. And like Shadow, he isn’t always as tough as he looks. Though he’s now worn down by his thousands of years on the earth, and has no scruples being violent when it’s needed, Adam is also very nurturing, and a lot of his inner thinking and his memories are about the many gardens he has tended to throughout his life, starting with the first Garden, and the love he has for Eve. He thinks in terms of gardening, and I loved the little habit he has of collecting seeds from whatever fruit he has eaten, carefully sifting through them to find any that might take and grow.

This book made me feel a lot of things, and I really enjoyed the way Langmead wove the action and the quiet moments, the present and the past, and the natural world with the cities. Birds of Paradise is full of beautiful descriptions, and I think I’ll need to read it again soon to fully appreciate them, but one of the things that stood out the most were the descriptions of cities: the story takes place mostly in the UK, with Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Manchester being the main cities featured, and Langmead definitely captured their essences perfectly.

All in all, a magnificent feat of storytelling, and a beautiful interpretation of what could be argued is the first tale. In some ways I wish it had gone on longer, because I didn’t want to leave the pages, but the ending was also perfect, closing the chapter of Adam’s life that we got to witness and leaving the door ajar for the next one.

I was given an advanced copy from NetGalley for review purposes.

This a beautiful book with a dark, twisted undertone that made the story feel eerier.

I found that this book was heavily character-driven, and it's mostly from Adam's perspective, which I feel suited the story really well. I found Adam to be such a fascinating character. He was flawed and raw yet so well developed. The story went at a pace that felt like Adam, and it wonderful.

The book is about immortals trying to escape discovery from humans. The story takes us through time and tells us of Adam's life, although when we meet Adam, his memories are blurry and unreliable. I loved the aspect of Adam being a protector to those with him initially; I specifically love Magpie; his character was interesting to me, and I enjoyed following his and Adams adventure to find the missing pieces of Eden.

That twist at the end really had me; I was not expecting it, which I suppose is a good thing. As a whole, I really enjoyed this book! I would recommend it to younger readers as there are a few darker subjects; however, it is a wonderfully twisted story that I can see becoming a must-read for many people.

“What’s a pond compared to the open sea?”

This is a glorious, beautiful, dark gem of a book.

Although there is a plot, in my opinion, it is character driven and, with characters like these, the result is superb!

I love that it was mainly told from the perspective of Adam and the birds. The personification is clever and detailed. There is certainly a whiff of the Orwellian brilliance of Animal Farm.

This is no children’s biblical tale. There is certainly an aura of death and despair. In the ultimate ‘What came first, the chicken or the egg?’ we as the reader ponder the implications of retaining morality during an immortal lifespan. Did Adam corrupt his children, or did his children corrupt Adam?

Can the ‘Found Family,’ troupe even be referred to as such when Adam is the adopted father of living beings? It did give those vibes though! Adam nurtured his animals and he and Eve named them. He speaks of carrying on for their sake, but they look after him too. In a time when Adam can no longer be their protector, Rook takes over and Adam becomes Rook’s protectee too.

My only critique would be that the flood (Which we knew was coming from the synopsis and, under the circumstances of the synopsis, we believed to be of biblical reference) was sprung upon us. There was no build up or description of the rains or waters rising. Adam was unconscious, he awoke, and the flood was already higher than buildings!

Despite this, I highly recommend this book and think it will become a ‘must-read.’ Watch out for the twist at the end!

“I can’t sleep. If I sleep, I’ll die, and I’ll wake up dead.” - Crow

Thank you to Titan Books via NetGalley for a free copy of this ARC.

I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGalley for an honest review. I absolutely loved the reading experience and would like to thank the author and publisher for the opportunity.

Immortal individuals or groups, making their way through different lifetimes, faking identities in the process are often encountered in fantasy. The genre likes to ask what would happen if an individual, human or not, went on living through different eras, rather than dying. Birds of Paradise attempts to answer even harder questions: what if the first man never died? What would living not through some, but through all eras would look like? As you might have guessed from my rating, I really enjoyed finding out the answers.

Birds of Paradise we follow Adam, the first man, still living. He works as a security guard but overall he lacks purpose. Living since the beginning of time, losing many loved ones - even ones he knew since his time in Eden - and become increasingly disenchanted with the choices of his descendants, he's a shadow of his former self. His memories have become blurry and unreliable, and while he's immortal, his condition is something less than living.

But Adam isn't completely alone in his exile. Fellow residents from the Garden of Eden, such as Rook, Owl, Butterfly and other animals he named also live in the contemporary world, hiding in human form. Some are relatively content while other struggle after so many years. Each has a vibrant, unique personality with mannerisms and traits inspired from their animal form without being stereotypical. Their backstories and quirks make the reader care and root for them. Crow, Rook and Magpie were my personal favourites. In their interactions with Adam, there is humor and banter of people who have literally known each other forever, but also bitterness and nostalgia for the long lost paradise.

Things become complicated when more and more pieces of Eden start finding their way into our world. To put it mildly, humanity isn’t good at dealing with those. As Adam and his immortal companions try to find and save these pieces of paradises – with a flood of biblical proportions as a background– two things are achieved: a great plot that never gets tiring, and a powerful comment on mankind’s cruelty - often justified through the misuse of religious text and symbols.

The writing is beautiful, polished and memorable throughout, revealing just enough to keep the reader going without dwelling on unnecessary details. I particularly liked the way different locations are described. Having been to a few of the places Adam and his companions visit, such as Glasgow and Manchester, I could really feel the care put into illustrating them in accurate but fresh ways. Adam's inner world is also impressively written, increasingly so as he came closer to his former self.

Birds of Paradise is marketed as "American Gods meets The Chronicles of Narnia." Both are works I enjoyed, but also had some issues with. I didn’t have any significant issues with Birds of Paradise, however. The concept is unique and exciting, the prose is beautiful, the characters very endearing and the plot simple to follow and increasingly interesting the more you read.

One of my complaints regarding American Gods, was that Shadow wasn't proactive enough, for the most part simply allowing things to happen to him. Adam might also seem like an odd protagonist at first. After all, he's taken a backseat in his own life and leaves other characters make choices for him for a large part of the novel. However, in Birds of Paradise, this seemed like a deliberate decision from the author’s part and felt justified. When Adam starts retrieving lost memories and finds something worth fighting for, the difference is all the more poignant because of his initial passive stance. I can't really talk about the ending without spoiling anything, but I have to say, it was a punch, and I will remember it for a long time.

Finishing the book, I wanted more. More interactions between the characters, more immortal animals in human form, more information on Adam’s complicated feelings about humanity. But I also felt this book is complete, every scene mattered and everything happened as it should. The best books finish at the right time, but also suggest their world and characters will live on – here quite literally – and this is definitely the case with Birds of Paradise.

All in all, I can’t recommend Birds of Paradise enough. It’s a remarkable achievement, tender and violent at once, about the possibility of keeping a piece of paradise in the contemporary world.

This review is also available at my blog https://ladyofbooklot.wordpress.com/2021/02/22/birds-of-paradise-by-oliver-k-langmead-review/. Also check out my Instagram ladyofbooklot for a photo and mini-review soon.