For generations, the Company has produced made-to-order men and women for the jobs humankind itself no longer wishes to fill—soldiers, scientists, and administrators. It depends on the very predictability of what it creates, as does Earth and the far-flung galactic agricultural colonies. But not everyone finds such homogeneity comforting. Joshua 1011 is the living masterpiece of a genius with a singular mission and vision—bring back the ancient genotypes that once were the backbone of creative life. Raised in the tight-knit social structure of the Company’s military line, silently protected by its highest administrator and yet also targeted by those who are threatened by his differences, Joshua must learn what it means to carry not only Administrator and Tech gifts within himself, but also how to simply survive as an individual in a sea of look-alike brothers-in-arms. Matthew Dennon is a simple man, married early into the Core, the ruling-caste of the natural humans of Earth. But as he digs into the secrets kept by the Company, and deals with the repercussions of changes made to his own DNA long ago, he finds himself alone, divorced from the protective rings of power, fighting alongside Joshua. Together they will take a stand against the systems that cage them and the unfolding nightmare unleashed by Joshua’s troubled creator. And as a real love blossoms between himself and the young soldier, they will face decisions that affect not only themselves, but also the entire string of worlds that support the delicate thing called humanity.

To what extremes would you go to return humankind to its full creative potential after generations of game-leveling genetic tampering? For the followers of a martyred genetic engineer named James Illion, the answer is obvious—all the way to the very edge of the death of civilization itself. Joshua 1011, the artificially created son of Illion, finds he is the carrier of a deadly and life-altering viral weapon. As his lover, Matthew Dennon, and his sometimes-enemy Adam struggle to find a way to save Earth and themselves, an old intelligence stirs in the depths of a vast interstellar computer network. It has worn many masks, evolving and changing over the course of centuries. But its time to act has come because it, too, knows that the only way forward for all of life, both biological and man-made, will be a path both breathtaking and destructive, and that the cost may be the end of nearly everything that came before. From sensitive m/m romance to high adventure, from a love-sick artificial life form to young men who begin to bridge multiple realities, Strands of Silk and Fire will lead you into a time where intuition must become the best defense, and imagination, the sharpest weapon of all.