3.85 AVERAGE


Decent light novel. The language was a bit strange in places. I attribute that to the original author, as the translator has been involved in some of the best video game translations I have seen.

It was a fun popcorn novel. It pains me to say this, but the movie is better. Live. Die. Repeat/Edge of Tomorrow takes the core concept and many of the beats of this novel and does them better.

This novel, "All You Need Is Kill", is the what the movie "Edge of Tomorrow" was loosely based on. There were a number of significant changes from the book to the movie.

In the novel, Keiji Kiriya was Japanese and I guess that they decided that Tom Cruise couldn't play a Japanese character without violating cultural appropriation. Keiji was a grunt in the Japanese Defense Forces where in the movie he was a PR guy that manipulated the public's opinion of the war against the Mimics to assist the military in getting new recruits.

I believe that I actually like the book better than the movie but then I'm only 20 minutes into the movie. I don't know whether Rita Vrataski's Jacket (her powered armor) was red in color or whether she used a tungsten carbide battle axe as her primary weapon.

laura_jayne's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

The writing style reads young but with lots of blood and swearing
ehmannky's profile picture

ehmannky's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 25%

I keep thinking I'll like books that mostly focus around war and then am shocked when this genre, which I have never liked, does not suit my tastes. 

An absolutely fantastic sci-fi novel. Clever, engaging, heart-breaking - I recommend this to anyone who enjoys any type of sci-fi especially fans of Enders Game.
fast-paced
adventurous fast-paced

I'd seen the movie before reading All You Need Is Kill. Although I remembered the main story beats, it was still an entertaining read. (The ending, for example, is completely different.) For a time travel novel, it's relatively straightforward. The protagonist Keiji is trapped inside a time loop where the world resets to a "checkpoint" every time he dies. Using the time loop to become a killing machine, Keiji must find a way to stop the alien invasion and escape the loop. He also needs to team up with the legendary 'Full Metal Bitch', a hardened 19-year-old veteran slaughtering mimics like flies with her enormous war axe.

I got a feeling that an anime adaptation would work really well; very fast-paced, in-your-face action filled with blood, bullets and fucks. All You Need Is Kill is a testosterone-packed macho fantasy. Not even the female chest area escapes our protagonist's attention who divides women into three categories: pretty, homely and gorillas. Given the genre/style, it's kind of given, but the novel suffers from corny dialogue and cringey melodrama. Still, most of the novel is solid and at least the ending is satisfyingly bittersweet. The sci-fi behind the time loop is somewhat vaguely explained (and to be honest it was handled better in the film), but that's easy to ignore—just buckle up, ready your weapons and don't look back.

The world encapsulated by this man's words was fascinating. It was gritty, it was bloody, but most of all it was entertaining. It made me care, for the character's fate, for their promise and possibilities. I dragged the days out hoping I didn't see the end fold out like it did (as I have been spoiled to it before), and yet here we are, with the closed book resting next to me, and a character's demise spelled out in painful detail.

It was awesome. Can't wait to read the manga now.
adventurous fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No