All You Need Is Kill Novel

Keiji Kiriya is a raw recruit in the Japanese arm of the United Defence Force battling against the alien invasion and we join him on the eve of his first battle and stay with him until his death. Along the way he meets Rita Vrataski, aka Full Metal Bitch, most famous warrior on Earth but even she can’t save him as she’s only hanging around to recover his mech suit battery. Unlike most of the raw recruits who die in their opening encounter, Keiji’s death triggers a time-loop and he once again awakens on the eve of the fight. When it happens again he discounts his initial dream theory and sets about trying to learn what he can about what’s happening to him. Can Keiji break the loop and what’s Rita’s involvement in all of this?The author acknowledges the inspiration of playing video games lies deeply at the core of this short military sci-fi novel. The main protagonist (Keiji) or player learns to get better in either of two main ways. Either by figuring out how the enemy react on each successive run through from his own experiences up to his death or by watching another player (Rita) who’s already mastered some of the techniques needed to survive and get to the next level. The development of the main character is handled well as is the timing for the interjection of Rita’s back-story. For those who’ve seen the movie Edge of Tomorrow that are wondering if it’s worth picking up the book then I would say there’s enough differences between the two, especially the ending, to justify giving it a go. Maybe just don’t read/watch them back-to back.

See full review @ The Indigo Quill

All you need is kill is a very short military sci-fi novel written by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. It follows the strange phenomenon encountered by a young soldier named Kiriya Keiji on his first day of battling the alien menace known as the Mimics. After killing a strange looking mimic and consequently dying, he wakes up in bed 30 hours prior, thinking it was all a dream. After dying again and waking up in the same place, he realizes something is wrong. Every time he dies, he just wakes up the morning before and re-lives the worst day of his life until he can finally stop dying. It has been described as, “Groundhog Day with guns” but other than the time loop, this book has a story, setting and feeling all its own.

It reads like you’re watching a very well made anime. The imagery is spot on and the characters are interesting and well fleshed out. Kiriya’s evolution through the story, and his relationship with the mysterious Rita Vrataski (a fellow soldier who has become a legend) are all very well done and interesting to read. The alien menace is extremely unique in both their design, and function. I always struggle to find something new in sci-fi when everything seems to be composed of the same tropes over and over again. It was nice to find an interesting reworking of the tired old, “alien invasion of earth in the near future” thing.

As a huge sci-fi fan, it isn’t every day that I read something that I don’t feel I’ve read before in one way or another. It was with much surprise then, when I found myself unable to put this book down. The world seemed very believable as an apocalyptic scenario of the not so distant future. The aliens were a threat to behold and our technology was advanced, but not enough to give us a leg up on our mollusk-like foe. A mollusk with conductive sand for blood that shoots huge spears out of its body faster than a bullet and terraforms the earth by eating soil and excreting toxins isn’t something you run across every day. The time loops were amazing, and the effect they had on the character and the story were extremely well thought out, to the point where they become Kiriya’s superpower and the bane of his existence.

I really don't remember exactly when and where I first heard about Hiroshi Sakurazaka's All You Need Is Kill but after I did it seemed to keep popping up everywhere I looked. It was even picked up by Warner Brothers to make into a live-action film. All You Need Is Kill was originally published in Japan as a light novel in 2004. The English edition, translated by Alexander O. Smith, was one of the very first books to be released by Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint in 2009. I haven' read much military science fiction but All You Need Is Kill certainly is that, complete with alien intelligence and battle suits. What particularly caught my interest in the novel was that the main character, Keiji Kiriya, dies during his first battle only to wake up in his bunk thirty hours before over and over again.The battle on Kotoiushi Island would be pivotal in humanity's war with the Mimics. If lost, the rest of Japan would follow, along with the technology that made it possible to fight against the constantly evolving invading force. Keiji is a Jacket jockey in the United Defense Force's 301st Armored Infantry Division which was sent to reinforce the island. He doesn't even make it through his first battle. Or his second. Or his third. Somehow stuck in a time-loop he is forced to live and die in the same battle again and again. The only thing he can do is learn to fight a little better and hope to survive a little longer each time. Rita Vrataski, member of the U.S. Army Special Forces, has killed more Mimics than any other person in the world. Known as the Full Metal Bitch, not that anyone would call her that to her face, she is formidable, efficient, and scary as hell on the battlefield. She is also one of the last hopes remaining to end the war and may be the only person who can help Keiji escape his fate.Although All You Need Is Kill is primarily entertainment and not overly serious, Sakurazaka still works in some environmental, technological, and social commentary. At least for me, the story also had a convincing emotional impact. Repeatedly living through the horrors of war, your own death, and the death of your friends and those around you changes a person and Sakurazaka captures this quite well. I like Keiji a lot and was most interested in his story, told in the first person. The third quarter of the book, written in the third person, focuses on Rita and the background of the war with the Mimics. While interesting and certainly important, especially in understanding Rita and her history, I still looked forward to getting back to Keiji. Which is not to say that I didn't like Rita, because I did. I liked most of the secondary characters as well; Keiji's bunk-mate and veteran Yonabaru in particular amused me as much as he tended to annoy others in his platoon. I also appreciated the fact that not everyone was assumed to be straight (although pretty much all of them were.)The translation Smith has done for All You Need Is Kill is great--it's straightforward with a good flow that hits hard and fast. There is also a nice use of repeated phrases to emphasize the time-loop that Keiji's stuck in. The original light novel was illustrated by Yoshitoshi ABe and it's a pity that none of his art was included in the Haikasoru edition beyond the cover--I really would have liked to have seen more of his work. I enjoyed All You Need Is Kill even more than I was expecting to and was impressed by how much action and story Sakurazaka was able to fit into such a relatively short work (it comes in at just under 200 pages.) I'm really looking forward to picking up his only other work currently available in English, also released through Haikasoru, Slum Online.Experiments in Reading

Awesome read. And what's not to love about a book featuring the chapters in a flow chart?

Military. Science Fiction. Groundhog Day.

There's no denying that the plot of All You Need is Kill is clever and iconic… but there's also no denying that the whole thing was executed far better in the screen adaptation, The Edge of Tomorrow. The writing here is just not very good at all, coming across as a hybrid of fanfic and game-box description. And honestly, had I not seen the movie (which, while quite different overall, keeps the book's mechanics in place) I think I'd be plenty confused about just what precisely happened plot-wise. See the movie instead.

While an interesting premise, the ending felt abrupt, and the pseudo-science explanation lacked rationale.

A fast-paced, action-packed and sometimes thought-provoking novel about a soldier caught in a time loop. What would you do if you had to fight the same battle every day?

Wow what a rush this book is. From start to finish this book is non-stop. In a world slowly being overrun by monstrous creatures known as Mimics the United Defense Force fights back. This is Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers with a touch of Mechwarrior.

Keiji Kiriya is new recruit about to enter his first battle only to get killed. Then wake up the previous day. And so the cycle goes and over "time" Keiji learns more about the enemy and how to fight it, especially by watching the world's greatest soldier, American Rita Vrataski, the Full Metal Bitch.

I won't say more about the story as it's not a long book and it's best to find it out yourself. There isn't a dull moment and it leaves you wanting more, but in a good way. Read it before Tom Cruise makes a horrible movie adaptation and makes you wish you'd never heard of it.

The idea is very interesting, but the execution of the story's repetitive structure drags.The protaganist, Keiji Kiyira, is a Japanese soldier barely out of his teens who enlisted after he and his girlfriend break up. During his first battle, Keiji is killed by the starfish-like alien race du jour (Highly adaptable alien microbes were sent throughout the universe to make whatever planets they found habitable for an unknown alien species. On earth, these microbes began producing chemicals that turned the sea into a sludge toxic to humans but amenable to their creators. The microbes also mutated some starfish they encountered in order to eradicate the planet's most problematic native species: humans). However, rather than staying dead, Keiji awakens earlier that morning, and most of the book is spent following him as he replays the same day over and over trying to figure why. Along the way he hones his warrior skills in an attempt to prevent his death in battle and hopefully escape the time loop. Some stuff happens in the second half of the book to do with a female US soldier called the Full Metal Bitch and time traveling aliens, but explaining it would be A) difficult and confusing and B) totally spoilerish. Also, everyone has the typical space marine mecha suit that has infected military sci fi lately.There are a lot of interesting ideas here from the alien microbe thing to the time traveling alien messages, but there are some major issues with clarity and characterization. I think that some of it can be attributed to this being a bad translation.Also, I can't believe this is being made into a movie starring Tom Cruise! WHAT?!

An awesome short read. This Sci-fi novel is an end of the world kind of scenario, with Alien Terraformers, time loops, and light Japanese mecha; What is not to like? This book was also the inspiration for "Edge of Tomorrow" staring Tom Cruise.

I saw the movie Edge of Tomorrow this past summer, which was based on this book. The movie was fucking awesome, so I absolutely had to read this book. The book didn't have quite the Hollywood happy ending as the movie, but it did have an ending that made a bit more sense.

Often times, when I read a book after seeing the movie, I quit reading halfway through, because fuck, I know what's going to happen. Why bother? Well, with this book, I had no fucking clue what was going to happen, because it was that much different from the movie. I mean, the basic ideas are the same. Guy kills an alien which puts him in a time loop, so every time he dies, he comes back to life at the same point in time, like Groundhog Day. But there were so many differences in the details, that it was still a compelling page turner.

This book is about a war with invading aliens. And about a man who doesn't want to have anything to do with the war. But he is thrust into it, by his superiors. He knows that going into battle would be a death sentence, because he isn't a fucking soldier, goddamnit. He's a fucking paper-pusher. He doesn't know how to fight.

He is sent into battle, anyway. Because to the marines, he is just cannon fodder. He's just another expendable body to throw at the aliens. Somehow, he survives the battle, after executing a bomb, that he was sure would kill him, and the attacking alien. But it turns out, that it didn't actually kill him. Instead, it sent him into a time loop. He's back at the base, being introduced to the Sergeant, once again.

So, he ends up going into battle, over and over. Dying, over and over. Until he meets a woman who trains him to fight. She trains him to use the time loop, to stop the alien invasion.

I can't recommend this book enough. And the movie. The movie was great, even with that psycho weirdo Tom Cruise. Both the book, and the movie are non-stop action. Compelling, and not predictable, at all. There. I'm done with the ball washing. I can only drool so much, goddamnit.

This is one story with three titles. The original Japanese light novel is All You Need is Kill. The theatrical release starring Tom Cruise was called Edge of Tomorrow, and the version released on DVD, Blue-ray, and streaming was Live, Die, Repeat.My interest in the movie was initially piqued because of the D-Day inspired trailer, and because I had greatly enjoyed Tom Cruise's competent performance in his previous sci-fi movie, Oblivion. I didn't get a chance to see the movie in theatres, so I picked it up on Blu-ray when it came out.By that time, the title of the movie had changed. The re-branding of the movie with the tagline from the theatrical release did not dampen my enjoyment of what turned out to be a war movie blended with the essence of almost all videogames: infinite lives. It is really the combination that makes this movie interesting. Matching up with the trailer, this is a grunt's eye view of war. Confusion, regret, and death barely kept in check with black humor. The idea that war is hell has been done better elsewhere; what is really horrifying is the idea that you have to live out that last, awful day of your life, over, and over, and over.At least, until you figure out that death is never final [although it is inevitable], and you can do whatever you want with no repercussions. Much like Bill Murray's cynical weatherman in Groundhog Day, Cruise's dilettantish REMF Major Cage travels through disbelief to despair to acceptance to something like grace. Dying seems to have been the best thing that ever happened to Major Cage. Cruise does a good everyman performance, saying and doing the things most of us fear we would do if trapped in a horrible situation, but ultimately turning into something like the best version of himself after getting unlimited chances to rectify all his mistakes.The movie was well-done, the central conceit turned out to be thought-provoking [at least for me], and I found the characterization plausible. Not bad for a movie that seemed to be inspired by videogames. It has long been true that all movies based on videogames are bad. It is also true that most videogames based on movies are bad. The kinds of stories you tell in the two forms of entertainment differ markedly, particularly in that videogames are supposed to be repetitive. If the hero fails in his quest, you just respawn and try again. Finding a way to turn this into an interesting narrative was quite an achievement. Even more so, when I discovered the movie was based on a light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.Thus, it is even more remarkable that this game mechanic turned story mechanism survived the transition to the screen, because novels and movies also are forced to tell their stories in different ways. To successfully blend the novel and the videogame, and to then successfully adapt that to the kind of story that Hollywood does best, deserves praise.Despite pulling in as much money as blockbuster movies do, videogames have almost no effect on the wider society. This has been changing, slowly. Wreck-It Ralph is the best videogame movie ever made, but to say that risks damning the movie with faint praise. I'm starting to see more videogame references in other kinds of media, but perhaps this is just a Kuhnian revolution where all the old guard are dying off, and the new content producers just find videogames a natural part of their life.Perhaps another reason for all this is popular entertainment is converging in on a common point. Many big movies now have a novelization [sometimes a new one is created even when it was based on a novel!], and if it is an action or sci-fi movie, also a videogame tie-in. If you can market some toys and other merchandise too, all the better. From a production point of view, it makes sense to tell stories in a way that makes it easier to generate all that valuable ancillary content.Sakurazaka's novel fits into that paradigm in a very Japanese way. Light novels, as the name implies, are disposable popular entertainment marketed to young adults. Popular light novels are illustrated or animated, serving as the farm team for content generation in the Japanese market. This one was popular enough to be optioned by Hollywood, and it gives us a good case study for how different media and different markets produce subtle differences.The basic story in the novel is much the same as the movie. Unstoppable alien monsters. A hopeless war. Mechanized infantry are the last hope for humanity. A soldier trapped endlessly in a fight against unstoppable hordes. Sakurazaka's book was very traditional military sci-fi. Lots of salt of the earth soldiering, and no visibility to the grand schemes of the brass. Unlike Cruise's Major Cage, Sakurazaka'a protagonist was a plain old grunt, Private Kiriya, fresh out of boot. Even in translation, the book is very Japanese. The idioms, the expectations of the soldiers, even the kinds of women they dream about, different from an American, or even a western novel of the same type.Also, the ending is different. My editorial policy is to discuss the ending of any story without warning, but here is your spoiler warning regardless. While I think the ending has much of the same spirit in the American movie as in the Japanese book, the critical difference is that the book goes for the tragic ending while the movie goes for the happy one. What they have in common is that each ending upends the idea of infinite lives in a videogame, where the enemies keep doing the same thing over and over while you learn more and more, and posits an enemy that has exactly the same experience you do, and learns with every iteration.The whole thing almost ends up where it began, with everything coming down to one climactic battle, much like it would in a world were you couldn't rewind time back to before you died. The crucial difference between book and movie is how this all plays out for the protagonist and his friends. Up until the very end, I liked the book better than the movie. It was harder sci-fi, with better military know-how and better science. But at the end, Hollywood demonstrated why it makes so much money worldwide. They know the human heart better, and that made all the difference.Tragedy has its place, but it takes greater strength of character to insist that it really will turn out well in the end.

I'm not sure when it started but I've developed a guilty pleasure for Military Sci-Fi.

I was originally drawn to this story because it is the basis of the Tom Cruise film due for release later this year. The concept is rather simple: A soldier is forced to relive the same day of battle over and over, trying to find a way to break the loop. That kind of idea that really appealed to my psyche!

Initially, it appeared that there would be no real reason behind the loops, but the authors explanation I found to be really quite interesting and creative.

At a mere 200 pages, the story really skips along quite fast and the author does a really good job of highlighting the repetitive nature of the experience without bogging the story down in minutiae.

Reading the story without the original illustrations I imagine lessens the experience somewhat, but I've never been into comics or Manga anyway.

Overall, this is quite a simple story told well. If there was a disappointment it's that the entire story essentially inhabits one room (i.e. that one battle). With some an intriguing set up, you never find out ultimately what happens in the end.

This is a solid three and a half story, so I'll round it up to 4.

I really enjoyed this brisk read. Really worthwhile if you have a free 3 evenings.

A hero trapped in a time loop, repeating his last 30 hours of life. A tried and true premise.

In regards to the plot, I felt that it started out strong. The mystery was what got me to turn the pages, and it was the search for the answer to why our protagonist was stuck in this loop that kept me going. Frankly, I did find the first half of the novel much more interesting than the later half. Maybe it was the mystery of not knowing what was happening, and trying to guess why. As the story progresses, the author spends quite a bit of time telling instead of showing, and I think that's where it started to lose some of its magic.

Character development, likewise, suffered the same fate as the plot development. I felt that there was a slow and stable growth in the first half of the story, but as we got more exposition of Rita's backstory, as well as the history of the war, the characters again started to loose their steady growth.

I thought it was a great book overall. It's a pretty quick read...it only took me a day during a long car trip to finish it up.

Pros: great sense of perspective, deals cleverly with repeating daysCons: starts in the middle of the action so it’s harder to get a grasp of the situationWhen Keiji Kiriya dies in his first battle with the alien Mimics he doesn’t expect to wake up the previous morning as if those days were just a dream. He quickly realizes that time is repeating and decides to train hard and become a great Jacket jockey like Rita Vrataski, aka the Valkyrie, aka the Full Metal Bitch.This novel was the basis for the film Edge of Tomorrow, which I thought was really well done. Sure, the ending didn’t make much sense, but it was a fun film. The ending in the book is different, and does make sense.You get point of view chapters from both Keiji and, later on, Rita, which help put you into the action and understand why those two act the way they do. They’re interesting characters, with a lot of supporting characters around them that you get to know fairly well.There’s enough exposition to understand the armoured suits the soldiers wear (the Jackets) and the alien menace, but beyond that there are only snippets here and there about how the world has coped with the war and how Keiji and Rita ended up enlisting.While a few days are heavily detailed, the majority are skipped outright, giving you a good impression of time passing and Keiji learning how to fight without becoming boring or repetitive.It’s an action packed story that’s also a quick read at just under 200 pages.

I am a sucker for time loop themed books/etc and All You Need Is Kill was no disappointment. I loved reading it and the story it told, even the ending. I'll probably be disappointed in the film adaptation, but I'm really glad it exists because it introduced me to the existence of this book. Time loops + war + character development = a great read. It wasn't too hard (I think it's a light novel) and I breezed through it, but it was pretty weighty at the same time. In the end, very enjoyable science fiction.

Released as part of VIZ-Media’s recent fiction line, Haikasoru, All you need is Kill was a very fast but great read. Though technically considered a light novel, you do not find any of the watered down elements a LN would normally bear. The characters are clear and enjoyable. the story is descriptive and vibrant. The novel could very easily be triple the length, but it would not make it any better. Instead, you would risk watering down its power, like small punches to your gut turning to love taps.Though originally written in Japanese (2004), it was recently translated by Alex Smith and pushed out to the English market.if you read AYNIK, you will definitely be reminded of Robotech, Groundhogs day, and general anime/manga. This book is much more than any of those things however, so you will see no further references to them.FNORDinc’s overview-The planet earth is in the midst of a ground war. We fight alien machines sent to our planet to reform the atmosphere and land to the needs of their creators. Their blood is sand, electrically charged and poisonous to all earth life. Nanites mixed about inside them make them mobile bio-hazards, eating dirt and emitting toxic waste. These machines, called Mimics (not to be confused with giant mutant cockroaches) fire 1600 meter per second spikes into their enemies and destroy all they come in contact with. There is more to them, but i will let those who want more info read the book. These secrets are not mine to disclose.Protagonist Keiji Kiyira is prepping for his first battle. As a virgin in the bed of war, he is clumsy and nervous. he knows his training but has no idea what he is REALLY doing. This becomes evident two pages into the book as he is bleeding out. Torn nearly in two by enemy fire, he is in shock. Enter Rita, the “Full Metal Bitch”. Clad in red armor, wielding an axe, she is a vision of hope and absolute bad-assery. Sh is like the battlefield messiah, brute force putting the enemy into an the mood to absolve their sins through death. Her just being near Keiji is enough to get him back on his feet fighting. with out these two character, this story would be a waste of paper, detailing our own demise.Everything it stops an instant after he meets Rita. Keiji wakes up 30 hours earlier, in his bunk at the barracks. He is stuck in a loop, repeating the same battle every day. Talk about the perfect way to lose your mind. perpetually fighting a never ending battle, honing your skills and carrying them forward into the next day.I highly suggest this book.--xpost RawBlurb.com

As the source material for the film, Edge of Tomorrow, this is a short, fast-paced actioner. The book goes into greater depth with regards to the origin of the alien invaders. I don't recall any back-story for the Mimics in the movie but in the book, they are here for a reason - and it's not compatible with the indigenous life on Earth. I appreciated the small amount of time the book spent creating that back-story. It made everything else just a little bit more logical.Another change the movie made was the setting. In the film, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are running around Europe with their reset-point in London. The book takes place entirely in Japan. This change really made no difference to my enjoyment of either medium.But the biggest difference between book and film is the ending. That HEA ending in the movie really bugged me. It almost ruined the rest of the film IMHO. The book ends very differently in confronting the protagonist with a difficult choice. A choice that must be made if humanity is to survive the Mimic invasion. Ok, maybe it doesn't make a whole lot more sense than the movie ending - but I happen to prefer a bittersweet ending to one comprised entirely of saccharin.

Neat story. Interesting enemy. Good ending.

Military scifi that was badly written and had awful characters. The only redeeming quality is that it was still possible to create an entertaining movie from this mess of a book.

Let's start off with the fact that All You Need is Kill is a way better title than Edge of Tomorrow! Even though I saw the movie first, it didn't ruin anything and I was so happy to read Sakurazaka's original novel. The basis for the screenplay is there, but the character development is so much better than the adaptation. Enough about the film, on to the novel:All You Need is Kill is a story of an alien invasion, 20 years into the fight, with chief character Keiji repeating the same 30 hours over and over. The nature of this gift or curse is developed over the course of the novel, and is well drawn out to keep the audience experiencing it as Keiji, a piece at a time. The action takes place in Japan, concerning an island that the Japanese forces are trying to take back along side US Special Forces operators, including the "Full Metal Bitch". I really liked all of the premises set up by Sakurazaka and even though the reveal at the end was spoiled for me by someone extolling the virtues of film vs book, I can honestly say it didn't take away from my enjoyment when finally reading it. While technology plays a huge role, concerning the "jackets" (armored suits) used by the warriors on the ground, it just becomes an extension of the characters, and quickly dissolves into the background. Sakurazaka's afterward talks about his inspiration coming from video games where you reset the game over and over until you win, so that winning becomes an inevitable thing. Keiji's story, though he keeps learning and applying his experience in battle like hitting reset, takes this and expands it much further. I like this theme that faced with doing the same thing over and over with no end in sight, you can't help but become a master in your own right, and then being thrown in with someone else living the same experience and feeling like you can't hold a candle to them. The story teaches us to be humble, turn the other cheek (despite being set in a war), and puts the concern for others on top, even at the expense of the relationship with them. If you liked the movie I highly recommend you read this novel, and if you haven't seen the movie yet, this is one of those rare books where I feel like you can do either first and it doesn't take away from the other. The plot lines are really vastly different, and of course the Hollywood version created a whole different do or die ending and a little ribbon tied around the closing scene with Tom Cruise giving a pretty boy smile to camera.

I bet this is going to be about seventy times better than that the Tom Cruise movie that is coming out.

A retelling of "Groundhog day" with a military twist and an interesting explanation of why "it" is happening. Although nothing special in the content, it is a pleasant reading because it has the right tone and ambition. It doesn't try to look any more than what is really is, an entertaining sci-fi flick.

A page turner. It's like Groundhog Day with a dash of Starship Troopers.

Well, damn. That was fast-paced and badass. Time loops, alien invaders and soldiers with exoskeleton armor: all tropes we've seen before. Put them together and you've got a fantastic story. I couldn't put it down.

Random chance puts Keji Kiriya in a time loop in which he repeats the same day in a war against alien terraforming nanobots. With each experience he becomes a better fighter. This goes on until he meets another person caught in same time loop. This is their story. As with anytime loop story the situation gets boring quickly. The changes in the story happen in forced, gee I have introduce something different to keep the reader engaged,way. There is no lead up to the obligatory explanation of the aliens motives. There is no context given any of the important plot developments. The story ends without a satisfying ending, even after an over the top major battle sequence. I left the book wondering what caused the excitement over the book. I will see the movie but with low expectations. The movie trailers show only a passing resemblance to the book in that , there is a man in the book there is a women in the book, there is an alien invasion, and there is a time loop, in the book.

When you play a video game, you have unlimited lives to figure out how to beat the enemy. What if real life war was the same way? Or what if Groundhog Day was based on war instead of Bill Murray trying to find his humanity?This book was the basis for the Tom Cruise movie, Edge of Tomorrow. It differs substantially. Great movie, Great book.

Very interesting story. The film version has more humor to it, but this version has more pathos. I'm not sure which I prefer. However, I will say that seeing the movie doesn't spoil the novel and vice versa.

Fast, on the edge of your seat reading. Fascinating. Interesting. Great translation from Japanese. A little too much swearing, but they are soldiers. Intriguing science... lost me about 70% through in that regard, but still good.