Japanese Light Novel Book Club discussion
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All You Need Is Kill
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All You Need is Kill Group Read
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Cool! This has been on my TBR for a while and I've wanted to read it so badly but other responsibilities have always taken precedence but now I have the best excuse! A group read! Yay!
Just requested thru interlibrary loan!
I've been meaning to pick this one up - I'll have to order it soon so I can join in. :)
I'm in. I'm going to read the japanese version. The chapters seem the same so I should be in sync with the group. Be interesting to see how that goes in discussion.
Cool. Does it have a lot of slang compared to other books?
Mod
If my library had it in Japanese, I would give it a shot. They don't, so English it is for me. It might have been a little more effort than I'd be willing to put int too. ^^;;;
I think that will make discussion pretty interesting, since the localisation may have changed some things compared to the Japanese version.Selena, if you're interested in reading books in Japanese, Bookwalker or the Japanese Kindle store is a great place to start. You can pick up freebie manga volumes and light novel samples to practice with. :)
That's a great idea! I need practice too. thanks! ^_^
On the topic of translation: I started reading it yesterday and immediately got the impression that it's probably a much easier story to translate into English than most of the other light novels I've read. The setting, characters, and flow of the writing seems like they offer relatively few difficulties. I would expect the quality of the translation that you all encounter to be quite good. I look forward to hearing your evaluations of that aspect.
Oh, one other comment on the japanese version: relative to my experience this is probably not a great candidate for your first japanese novel. While the language is not particularly difficult, and it does include furigana for many of the harder words, situational context is somewhat lacking in many scenes. Basically, the author is interested a certain amount of mystery for atmosphere so they create situational ambiguity that gets resolved when the reader realizes something important. That situational ambiguity can be a big obstacle for a beginner since it removes a lot of the context that you could otherwise rely on to help you understand what's going on in a particular scene.That's not to say that I think this is a hard book for a beginner to read - just that it will be less fun than other, more approachable titles.
Nice! I just finished watching the movie on TV for the 3th time. It really became one of my favorites. When I first saw it thought how exceptional the plot is and that the story must be the reason I actually like an action blockbuster mecha movie (yes I usually don't like them at all). Then I went on imdb and read that it is based on 'manga' and I laughted thinking 'of course it is' XD Well then I went and read a little bit of the manga but I don't know, it was missing something... I didn't know the manga is actually based on a book (jeez...) until I got on this thread. I'm really excited to read it with everyone, I bet the book is good (and should be much better than the manga) :)
The book was delivered this morning and surprisingly it looks about the same size as a light novel so I imagine it's not massively long. Looking forward to this one. :)
I picked up my copy from the library last night.
I was actually meaning to read this earlier this year but never got around to it. I've put this on hold at the library and should have it soon.
From reading the blurb and first few pages it reads like typical cynical military sci-fi (like The Forever War), which is a (sub)genre that I used to have an obsession with.
(I'm done! But I'll stick to the discussion schedule. ^_^)Ch.1 has macho boy talk typical of the genre, but the time loop saved it from just being another military sci-fi piece of candy.
It seems to have anime influences or maybe it's the other way around since it was published in 2004. Gotta love it, "Full Metal Bitch". I wonder if that was inspired by "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) and then there was "Full Metal Panic" (1998). More than enough "Full Metal" adjective compounds to draw on.
Will be ordering this book on Wednesday after I get my check. Luckily I have Amazon Prime so I should have it by Friday or Saturday. :)
This one is available to rent on Hoopla as an audiobook for free download if your library has that.Check out Edge of Tomorrow on hoopla digital.
https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/1... #hoopladigital
I listened to it last year. It has its moments, though the narrator's pronunciation seemed off at times. Keejee Koreea I think is how he says one of the names.
YoNa Buhroo is another.
Terrence wrote: "It has its moments, though the narrator's pronunciation seemed off at times."Oh dear, I think that would wind me up after a while!
How is everyone doing? Were you able to get the book? I read through chapter 1 on Sunday while I was on the train headed up to London. :)
My chapter 1 impressions:
(view spoiler)
Mod
I wouldn't be surprised if I heard the author really liked Full Metal Panic. The "Jackets" in here sound a lot like the Arm Slaves in FMP. There might be a difference, but I'm not far enough to get enough details on them. :)
"Bring it on!" said Sergeant Ferrell. ^_^ Interesting that he's Japanese Brazilian. South America was also a big emigration destination for Japanese. One of the president's of Peru was of Japanese descent and then he got convicted of corruption and escaped to Japan, which granted him political asylum. (A good friend of mine loves FMP. She has both (?) seasons.)
It felt to me like the story gradually drew me further and further in as it went along. It seems like there's a nice amount of mystery that keeps growing even as things become clear. After a while it got hard to put down so I went ahead and finished it.I'm not too familiar with military fiction, but this fits my sense of it. Like Rose I think the author did a pretty good job of revealing the situation without needing too much exposition. The pacing is good all the way through. It did feel like the characters, especially the protagonist were a bit thin. I think with supporting characters a loop story probably falls into that trap easily since you don't get to see them in novel situations much.
Mod
I'll be cracking this open today. I don't see it taking it to long to read honestly.
What are people's impressions of the new perspective brought in with Chapter 3, i.e (view spoiler)?I'm going to be reading Chapter 3 tomorrow but I'm excited to see things from a new angle and I imagine we'll get a few answers about the situation Keiji finds himself in.
Gord wrote: "I'll be cracking this open today. I don't see it taking it to long to read honestly."
It's a pretty short read and you will likely finish it quickly. I've been pacing myself with it but it's actually been kind of hard because I've been enjoying it and naturally want to see what happens next. :)
Mod
I just started chapter three this morning and I had a question pop into my head. How are those around Keiji handling this change in his personality? He starts each loop at the same time so that means one second he is a green recruit who knows nothing to the next second where is a hardened veteran of countless battles. That kind of difference would be very noticeable in my opinion. Outside of that I am interested in getting to knowing more about Rina and how she went from innocent farm girl to The Full Metal Bitch.
Mod
Finished it up this morning and it was alright. Nothing that blew my socks off or anything but alright. I'll wait until others are done before really discussing the ending of the book. I have no issues with it outside of my own personal bias but I'll wait to discuss that.
Mod
For one thing, why isn't Rita experiencing the loops when she always has? (view spoiler)
I also found myself shaking my head at a strange comment. "Cage" is written on Keiji's Jacket, and it's commented that that's how Americans would pronounce Keiji's name. I found this reversal of translations a bit humorous, since we would just say "Keiji" in America, or if we mispronounced it, we might say it as "keejee" (like "kiwi"). The Japanese would pronounce "Cage" as "Keiji", but definitely not the other way around lol
Selena wrote: "I just finished the book, and I'm left scratching my head at the logic.For one thing, why isn't Rita experiencing the loops when she always has? [spoilers removed]
I also found myself shaking my..."
I didn't get it either, so I just reread it.
(view spoiler)
Selena wrote: ""In the audiobook, his name is pronounced KeeJee KuhReeUh. xC
On big spoilers:
(view spoiler)
Mod
(view spoiler)
@ Alex: (view spoiler) I guess I just don't quite get it. ^^;;;
Selena wrote: "I think the strategy makes sense.@ Alex: [spoilers removed] I guess I just don't quite get it. ^^;;;"
I agree that the Mimics have a good strategy. Being more reactive than proactive, they're more (view spoiler)
That's a good point about Rita. (view spoiler)
So - terminology might be a bit different here. In the japanese version they don't use the term Mimics. They have a thing called a backup, which maybe becomes a mimic in the Translation. In any case, what I understood was that the person experiencing the loop is the one who was in direct physical (electrical) contact with the server when it is killed in the original loop. That person becomes a tachyon receiver so they get the signal back from the future, which changes their memories and makes them aware of what happens in the future. In their experience, they lived through that future even though they haven't physically experienced it.
So the person in the loop stays in the loop until it gets broken, because each loop is just a retry at fixing the original failure experience by the server. The loop is broken when the failure can't be propagated backwards, which requires that the server's ability to transmit be disabled before it is destroyed. To disable it's ability to transmit you have to destroy it's antenna, and all the backups (which also have antennas). And *then* destroy the server.
So anyway, Rita doesn't experience the loop because it was Kenji that was in electrical contact with the server at the moment that the loop started (through his pile driver). In Rita's loops Rita killed the server with her axe, which put her in electrical contact with it at the moment the loop starts (the axe is metal).
James wrote: "So - terminology might be a bit different here. In the japanese version they don't use the term Mimics. They have a thing called a backup, which maybe becomes a mimic in the Translation. In any c..."
Rose wrote: "My interpretation of Rita's issue was [spoilers removed]."
Clear explanations.
I liked it insofar as military sci-fi goes--although it was light on the character development/relationships but that's par for the (sub)genre--and it had a nice original idea about how another extraterrestrial sentient species might try to propagate itself--but it was still light on the science, which again was par for the (sub)genre.
Discuss All You Need is Kill here!
Reading Schedule
10/1-10/7 Chapter 1
10/8-10/14 Chapter 2
10/15-10/21 Chapter 3
10/22-10/28 Chapter 4