The style is a little on the average side, to be honest - that might be the translation. If anything the book doesn't quite get the most out of its concept - but don't ask me how the story could have progressed differently. Thankfully it doesn't read like a book-of-the-film-of-the-game. The book is also influenced - subtly, and nicely, by computer games - it's evident Keiji has a seemingly unlimited number of lives, and as he doesn't forget anything from one pass to another he can boost his training, confidence, skills and so on to finally hit the right buttons and succeed. The first person narrative drifts from the time travel element to the battleground, to the people around Keiji - including Rita, an American female warrior who has some mythic, Joan-of-Arc quality preceding her. This reads like a great mix of Starship Troopers and Groundhog Day, and as cheap as that mingling might sound it's an easy concept that works for this book. Each time he gets a better intelligence of what his destiny might have been - can he learn enough each time round to make a difference, and possibly break the loop? It only makes for prolonged horror for the rookie, but it happens again and again.
But then he's quickly alive again, as somehow his life is rewound a day. Despite his high-tech body armour, he's not destined to last long - he's quickly dead. In a global war between humans and invading aliens, called Mimics, Keiji is a trooper at the beginning of his short career in the army. Summary: A strong sci-fi concept - a grunt in a day-long time-warp cycle forced to face the same enemy until he can change his destiny - is not quite met by a strong writing, but this is worth the time of the genre fan.
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