Ingenious Series by Barrie Farris

To save his friends, Beau offers himself to an AI with a mandate to protect the humans in the Sanctuary under his care. Unfortunately, the perfect coding designed by the ancestors has created a dying habitat. Members are trapped inside a city deep beneath the Earth, and so is Beau once he enters the tunnel.Being captured quickly turns into being utterly captivated when he meets his roommate, the beautiful Jagger.Jagger has awakened from stasis expecting to inherit the Directorship... moreTo save his friends, Beau offers himself to an AI with a mandate to protect the humans in the Sanctuary under his care. Unfortunately, the perfect coding designed by the ancestors has created a dying habitat. Members are trapped inside a city deep beneath the Earth, and so is Beau once he enters the tunnel.Being captured quickly turns into being utterly captivated when he meets his roommate, the beautiful Jagger.Jagger has awakened from stasis expecting to inherit the Directorship. Instead, a slight defect hinders his perfect coding, and he works on the farms. Ironically, his ability to think outside the code improves production. Is he appreciated? No. He dreams of escaping when Beau’s friends return and figure out a way to unlock the exit hatches. Beau’s stories of Ruling Mothers and sentient vines shock Jagger. What the heck has happened up there since the Rebellion a thousand years ago?A twist of fate lifts the ban on same-sex marriage, and Jagger is forcibly matched with his childhood enemy, a man he never expected to see again after the lids closed on their stasis crypts. If given a choice, Jagger would choose his infatuated but likeable roommate. Beau is all in! Just how all in will require patience.But time is running out. An ancient enemy lurks with a mandate to destroy the Sanctuary and finish what the Rebels failed to do.Intuitive is the sequel to Ingenious. Contains explicit mm sex. Meet some cute lifeforms and many deadly lifeforms. Contains an AI finding ways to sneak around its mandate, and a ruthless AI mandated to destroy. Mostly about Beau wrecking two thousand years of coded perfection. less

Though this is Book 3 of the INGENIOUS series, INCEPTIVE is a standalone, set ten years later. The descendants of the Carolina Sanctuary have established two societies that despise each other. A bridge connects the overcrowded, sophisticated Island Federation to the puritanical farming community of Fort Hope on the mainland. Though Islanders are running out of room for their fertile population, Fort Hope refuses to unlock its guarded rampart and share land with those degenerates... moreThough this is Book 3 of the INGENIOUS series, INCEPTIVE is a standalone, set ten years later. The descendants of the Carolina Sanctuary have established two societies that despise each other. A bridge connects the overcrowded, sophisticated Island Federation to the puritanical farming community of Fort Hope on the mainland. Though Islanders are running out of room for their fertile population, Fort Hope refuses to unlock its guarded rampart and share land with those degenerates.Will is a privileged Islander, and Zach is a barely literate farmer. They meet in a saloon and, over drinks, discover each is being forced into marriage with a partner they dislike.Zach has a place to hide, a one-room cabin in a swamp that’s inaccessible to bounty hunters once the rainy season begins. But he lacks funds for food supplies, and the flooding will last six months. Will has funds but no place to hide on the Island. He’s never experienced a day without tech, food vendors, and indoor plumbing. He doesn’t know what’s waiting ahead in the swamp, but he knows what he’s running from. Will would rather take his chances with Zach than marry the older man selected by his father, the viceroy.Does Will’s preference for men mean Zach will withdraw the offer? The question amuses Zach. At six-eight and built like a stone rampart, he’ll break stray fingers.That he’d ever fondle a hairy farmer who avoids bathing amuses Will even more. He signs the indenture that permits him inside Fort Hope.In six months, Zach will have turned twenty-five, the legal age to claim his land votes and become Fort Hope’s new mayor. He’ll choose a sensible young wife, instead of the older widow blackmailing him into marriage. If elected mayor, Zach promises to lease farmland to the Islanders, providing the viceroy agrees to release Will from his marriage contract and build a surgical clinic for Fort Hope.Zach and Will are determined to watch each other’s back and give their people a chance to carve a new beginning. So what can go wrong? How about mutant predators, raging floods, an incurable plague… and an unscheduled rut in Will that arouses Zach, whose genetically engineered people are supposed to be immune to same-sex relationships?Six months? The runaways are in trouble after two.For readers looking for equal parts of plot and mm romance, INCEPTIVE is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi with adventure, twists, fun times, first times, snark, and steam. There’s also Belle, a talking roadrunner genetically engineered by the ancestors. If the men run out of food, Zach swears he'll pluck and roast that bird. less