All You Need Is Kill
By Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Translated by Alexander O. Smith

This science fiction novel was the basis for the movie Edge of Tomorrow: Live Die Repeat.  The movie was one of my favorite action films of 2014 and so I decided to read the novel and the graphic novel, hoping they'd be as exciting. The book is what is called in Japan a light novel. It's less than 200 pages but they are packed with the same action the made the movie so much fun.

Tom Cruise starred in the movie as an American officer, William Cage, but this character is Japanese in the book, named Keiji Kiriya. The other major player in the book, like the movie, is an American Special Forces soldier, Rita Vrataski, also known by a nickname that begins with Full Metal B-.

Together they face the same nasty alien enemy, which is on the verge of wiping out humanity. The only hope for the human side is Keiji, who gains the alien's ability to reset time. Unfortunately, this only happens when Keiji dies, which he does over and over, slowly learning from his mistakes and from Rita, who has her own experience with dying.