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eBook Category: Science Fiction Hugo Award Winner, Locus Poll Award Winner, Nebula Award(R) Winner
eBook Description: When Simon Kress returned to his home planet of Baldur from an offworld business trip, he was amused to find that his tank of Earth piranhas had cannibalized themselves into extinction, and of the two exotic animals that roamed his estate, only one remained. Now, in search of some new pets to satisfy his cruel pursuit of amusement, Simon finds a new shop in the city where he is intrigued by a new lifeform he has never heard of before ... a collection of multi-colored sandkings. The curator explains that the insect-like animals, no larger than Simon's fingernails, are not insects, but animals with a highly-evolved hive intelligence capable of staging wars between the different colors, and even religion--in the form of worship of their owner. The curator's warning to Simon about the regularity of their feeding, unfortunately, was not taken seriously.... ["Outer Limits" Episode]

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Omni, 1979
Fictionwise Release Date: July 2001

732 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [75 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [113 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [47 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [406 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [51 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [135 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [116 KB] , hiebook (KML) [178 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [117 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [42 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [52 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [97 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [72 KB]
Words: 15471
Reading time: 44-61 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED
Microsoft Reader ISBN: 1590621387
Mobipocket Reader ISBN: 1590623592

Recently, I received an e-mail stating that this story has broken a record at Fictionwise. At the time, it had received twenty "great" ratings in a row without a single lower rating. My vote made that total twenty-one. Simon Kress is a man who likes exotic pets. He likes to impress his friends with animals that are "unusual, entertaining, and expensive". After exhausting his usual resources for these kinds of animals, he discovers a new shop -- one that sells him some sandkings. Sandkings are insect-like creatures who live in a terrarium and are semi-sentient. Kress enjoys watching them build castles (yes, castles) and forage for food. Mostly, however, he enjoys watching them make war. I personally know of nothing with which to compare this story. George R.R. Martin, with his recent work, has stepped into a small group of elite genre authors; this story from 1979 proves that he's had the talent all along. Enjoy this one! I sure did. -Scott Danielson, Fictionwise Recommender

I have never devoured with such interest something so morbid. Sadist Kress has a quest for the exotic pet. Nothing cute; anything that maims or maws another life form will do. Jala Wo, an alien being, introduces him to Sandkings. Creatures that build living castles and fight vicious wars. But that is not enough. Twisted Kress dictates combat upon his pets, introducing larger and more dangerous assailants into the red glow of the terranium. Demonic conflict grows feverish, malevolent, cannibalistic... Tension holds from start to finish. George R. R. Martin is an oddity, a master at this. -Eugen Bacon, Fictionwise Recommender

"You have quite a large establishment," Kress said. "Odd that I have never heard of you before."

"We have only just opened this shop on Baldur," the woman said. "We have franchises on a number of other worlds, however. What can I sell you? Art, perhaps? You have the look of a collector. We have some fine Nor T'alush crystal carvings."

"No," Simon Kress said. "I own all the crystal carvings I desire. I came to see about a pet."

"A lifeform?"

"Yes."

"Alien?"

"Of course."

"We have a mimic in stock. From Celia's World. A clever little simian. Not only will it learn to speak, but eventually it will mimic your voice, inflections, gestures, even facial expressions."

"Cute," said Kress. "And common. I have no use for either, Wo. I want something exotic. Unusual. And not cute. I detest cute animals. At the moment I own a shambler. Imported from Cotho, at no mean expense. From time to time I feed him a litter of unwanted kittens. That is what I think of cute. Do I make myself understood?"

Wo smiled enigmatically. "Have you ever owned an animal that worshiped you?" she asked.

Kress grinned. "Oh, now and again. But I don't require worship, Wo. Just entertainment."

"You misunderstand me," Wo said, still wearing her strange smile. "I meant worship literally."

"What are you talking about?"

"I think I have just the thing for you," Wo said. "Follow me."

She led Kress between the radiant counters and down a long, fog-shrouded aisle beneath false starlight. They passed through a wall of mist into another section of the store, and stopped before a large plastic tank. An aquarium, thought Kress.

Wo beckoned. He stepped closer and saw that he was wrong. It was a terrarium. Within lay a miniature desert about two meters square. Pale sand bleached scarlet by wan red light. Rocks: basalt and quartz and granite. In each corner of the tank stood a castle.

Kress blinked, and peered, and corrected himself; actually only three castles stood. The fourth leaned; a crumbled, broken ruin. The other three were crude but intact, carved of stone and sand. Over their battlements and through their rounded porticoes, tiny creatures climbed and scrambled. Kress pressed his face against the plastic. "Insects?" he asked.

"No," Wo replied. "A much more complex lifeform. More intelligent as well. Considerably smarter than your shambler. They are called sandkings."

"Insects," Kress said, drawing back from the tank. "I don't care how complex they are." He frowned. "And kindly don't try to gull me with this talk of intelligence. These things are far too small to have anything but the most rudimentary brains."

"They share hiveminds," Wo said. "Castle minds, in this case. There are only three organisms in the tank, actually. The fourth died. You see how her castle has fallen."

Kress looked back at the tank. "Hiveminds, eh? Interesting." He frowned again. "Still, it is only an oversized ant farm. I'd hoped for something better."

"They fight wars."

"Wars? Hmmm." Kress looked again.

"Note the colors, if you will," Wo told him. She pointed to the creatures that swarmed over the nearest castle. One was scrabbling at the tank wall. Kress studied it. It still looked like an insect to his eyes. Barely as long as his fingernail, six-limbed, with six tiny eyes set all around its body. A wicked set of mandibles clacked visibly, while two long, fine antennae wove patterns in the air. Antennae, mandibles, eyes, and legs were sooty black, but the dominant color was the burnt orange of its armor plating. "It's an insect," Kress repeated.

"It is not an insect," Wo insisted calmly. "The armored exoskeleton is shed when the sandking grows larger. If it grows larger. In a tank this size, it won't." She took Kress by the elbow and led him around the tank to the next castle. "Look at the colors here."

He did. They were different. Here the sandkings had bright red armor; antennae, mandibles, eyes, and legs were yellow. Kress glanced across the tank. The denizens of the third live castle were off-white, with red trim. "Hmmm," he said.

"They war, as I said," Wo told him. "They even have truces and alliances. It was an alliance that destroyed the fourth castle in this tank. The blacks were getting too numerous, so the others joined forces to destroy them."

Kress remained unconvinced. "Amusing, no doubt. But insects fight wars too."

"Insects do not worship," Wo said.