Our discussion of All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka…

There’s one thing worse than dying. It’s coming back to do it again and again… When the alien Gitai invade, Keiji Kiriya is just one of many raw recruits shoved into a suit of battle armor and sent out to kill. Keiji dies on the battlefield, only to find himself reborn each morning to fight and die again and again. 

Several of us saw the movie based on the book, Edge of Tomorrow, and as luck would have it, a sequel is in the works – also starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.  

This is a sampling of our comments:

• I liked the writing style – the Japanese translation was unusually good.
• There was nothing malicious or mean-spirited in the book and the characters didn’t sleep together.
• The time loops were a little confusing and the movie gave a different explanation from the book.
• The book also had Keiji killing Rita, but not in the movie.
• The anime influence showed when the two main characters used battle axes to triumph over alien bots, and how no matter how much a character trimmed her bangs, her hair always fell into her eyes.
• Groundhog Day meets Inception.
• The book explored the idea that after 10,000 hours of practice, people can become good at anything.
• The Mimics were not human – they were terraforming bots like in Starship Troopers.
• Rita was tough, but human.
• The book seems to be saying that humanity is out of options.
• It was humorous when Keiji takes a punch from the big bully after evaluating several options and deciding not to kill him.
• The precious coffee! Couldn’t Keiji and Rita have taken it to go when the attack started?
• The flow chart in the beginning made absolutely no sense.
• Was the mystery book Keiji was reading real?

Please add any additional thoughts or comments you may have about All You Need Is Kill. We gave this title the codes MIL, NFW, ROB, TTL & HRO with an average rating of 4.