Author Joseph Carrabis (https://josephcarrabis.com/) published the novel “The Augmented Man” in 2019. Mr. Carrabis has published more than a dozen novels.

I categorize this novel as ‘R’ because it contains scenes of Violence and Mature Language. The story is set in the near-contemporary US.

The Augmented Men were created by the US to take brutal warfare to the enemy. All but one have, by the time of the story, died. The last one, Nick Trailer, surrenders himself to Captain James Donaldson. Donaldson is one of the men who created the Augmented men.

The two are left alone for days to talk about what has happened and how Trailer can if possible move forward with his life.

I had to call a Rule of 50 after 5+ hours reading this 313-page science fiction novel and abandon it. I had read 46% of it by then but I felt it was so dull and seemed to be going nowhere. I kept going on hoping that the story would develop, but, with disappointment, I just had to give it up. The author did a good job of writing, but I could not get interested in the plot. I do not like the cover art. It has as dark a feel to it as the story does. I give this novel a 2 out of 5.

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It was way too wordy. The plot and interpersonal relationships were rushed and didn't connect. The military aspect of the story overpowered the actual plot. It could have been longer to develop plot lines and character relationships. Generally, at any given time I was confused with what was happening with character motivations and actions..

The Augmented Man by Joseph Carrabis, a decent read in the Military Sci-Fi genre. I found it a tad hard to get into and it jumped around a lot in the beginning trying to build up an intro.

This has a good amount of action and tension and mostly held my attention. Military sci-fi is not my fave genre but this was good. Nice character creation and occasional tug on emotions. Recommended for sci-fi thriller fans.

I really appreciate the NetGalley copy for review!!

The Augmented Man follows a long tradition of supermen trained by the military or black ops to accomplish tasks. But, the Augmented Man takes it a few steps further where the men are somewhere between Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator than and Matt Damon in Jason Bourne. They are Augmented in their senses and damn near indestructible. But, to get them there where they can fulfill their missions - sometimes morally difficult missions - they had to start with psychologically dented beings who had survived childhoods of abuse and that is the word- survived. Do you bring back a rogue Augmented to the fold or find some way to destroy him? This book is half psych ops study and half black ops action. As such, it occupies new terrain, often distant terrain difficult to traverse.