All You Need Is Kill. The inspiration for Edge of Tomorrow.

All You Need Is Kill by Kiroshi Sakurazaka is the superbly named story that inspired the movie Edge of Tomorrow. It’s a short book, and if you liked the premise of the movie, it is definitely, definitely worth a read.

In case you haven’t seen The Edge of Tomorrow, a quick recap of the basic premise is in order. I should also add – go watch it! It’s great.

The protagonist of All You Need is Kill is a Japanese recruit in a future war against aliens called Keiji Kiriya. This isn’t really a spoiler (it happens right at the start,) but when Keiji is killed in battle, he finds himself in a time loop.

Each time he dies, he wakes up the previous day with full knowledge of what had happened. This gives him the chance to ‘level up’ his skills and become an uber warrior. But why has this happened, and is he the only one who has gone through this?

Is All You Need is Kill any good? And how does it differ from the film?

I loved it. If you enjoyed The Edge of Tomorrow or Groundhog Day, you will also love it. It will also probably appeal to gamers, as the idea of dying and learning through death was one of the inspirations behind the story.

Sakurazaka has said that the idea behind All You Need is Kill came from reading a piece by a gamer about a trial-and-error approach to games following the playable character’s death. The author then researched other books and films with a similar idea. It’s a great premise.

The main characters are fleshed out and likeable. They mainly consist of Keiji and his squad, Rita Vrataski aka ‘Full Metal Bitch’, and a mechanic called Shasta. As I said, it’s a short book. The action is well done, and the powered battle suits are great.

Unlike the movie, All You Need is Kill is set in Japan and takes place almost entirely on a military base. The main protagonist and his mates are all Japanese. Rita is American, and the aliens are still aliens. Also, the ending is a bit different.

If you like military scifi and general action, this is a great read. As I said, it’s short, so you don’t really lose much by giving it a go. I read the book after having watched the film multiple times, and it didn’t affect my enjoyment in any way. Give it a go!

You can check out All You Need is Kill by clicking on this link.

There is also a great manga, which you can see here.

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