"Sandkings" is a Short Story by George R. R. Martin (yes, that George R. R. Martin) that was first published in the August 1979 issue of Omni. In 1980, it won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette, as well the Nebula Award for Best Novelette (among other awards).
The plot is about Simon Kress, a wealthy playboy on the planet Baldur, who loves to collect dangerous, exotic animals. After he leaves on a long business trip, most of his pets die due to lack of care and he is left to rebuild his collection. Nothing interests him much, until he comes across a mysterious, brand-new shop called Wo & Shade.
Kress meets one of the owners of the business, Jala Wo, who grabs his interest with the titular sandkings- mysterious creatures that build castles in the sand and are split up into colonies. Each colony consists of a large female called the maw, and numerous insectoid mobiles. The maw cannot move, but controls the mobiles through telepathy. Kress decides to buy four colonies of sandkings after learning that they fight coordinated wars against each other and are also capable of worship (as seen with how the sandkings belonging to Jala Wo have created artwork of her face on their castles).
Kress's new pets prove to be an instant hit among his friends, but Kress's mistreatment and underestimating of them soon leads to disaster...
This short story provides examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Kress actually didn't mean to kill Cath, and is initially horrified that he's responsible for her death. He gets over it very quickly though, and from then on has no qualms about killing people.
- Ambiguous Situation: Did Wo and Shade destroy the White Maw or were they eaten by the Sandkings? Were they going to save Kress or did they fully intend to leave him stranded in the desert or for the orange Sandkings? As we follow Kress's POV, we can't possibly know. Martin's intent to write more Wo and Shade stories hints that the two were victorious, but Wo's truthfulness in saving Kress is left unrevealed.
- Ant War: The sandkings are not actual ants, but as insectoid aliens who live in colonies they still count. They participate in coordinated warfare against each other and even form alliances with other colonies if the situation calls for it.
- Asshole Victim: Kress is a real piece of work. Even before he becomes a murderer he's arrogant and cruel. He's so cartoonishly evil that he feeds puppies to his dangerous pets.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Kress wanted the Sandkings to show him his own face. He gets his wish when the evolved versions all have his face. Which he only sees as they throw him into the waiting jaws of the maw.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: According to Jala Wo, sandkings are "courtly ritual warriors" if they are treated well by their owner. She directly blames Kress's sandkings being hostile and dangerous on him torturing and starving them. The white sandking maw is an even bigger example, she has gone insane and become twisted due to Kress stabbing her and that wound becoming infected.
- The Dog Bites Back: The sandkings are initially tiny and direct worship towards Kress in the form of making sculptures of his face. However, Kress abuses and starves them in order to ramp up their aggression and willingness to wage war on each other. This results in the sandkings turning on Kress once they're freed from their enclosure and ultimately killing him.
- Fed to the Beast:
- Kress gets in the habit of feeding his so-called "friends" to the sandkings once they escape their terrarium and he's trying to appease them. Kress speculates that the maws are using their psychic powers to influence him.
- The final fate of Kress himself when he stumbles across the orange sandkings in the desert who quickly feed him to their maw.
- The Ghost: Shade, Wo's partner, is talked about but never makes an appearance. According to Wo, he doesn't really socialize at all. This is because he's actually a mature sandking maw who has attained sapience.
- Godzilla Threshold: The insane white maw that has grown giant and vicious, now seeing anyone and everything as food or enemies. Wo and Shade decide they have to bring everything they have against it to completely erase it from existence before it can spread unchecked.
- Hive Mind: Each sandking colony only has one true consciousness- that of its maw. The mobiles are really only extensions of the maw's will, and they are controlled by it via telepathy.
- It Can Think: The sandking maws are a lot smarter than they look. According to Jala Wo, their life cycle results in them becoming smarter until they reach the point of sapience, although this final step is something most sandking maws don't live long enough to reach.
- It's All About Me: Kress cannot think of anything beyond himself. What entices him about the Sandkings is their capacity to carve his face into their castles. Being a god to the creatures appeals to Kress's narcissism from the start.
- Kick the Dog: Literally. After Kress's ex-lover Cath reports the sandkings to the authorities and he has to bribe them to keep them quiet, Kress specifically buys a puppy to feed to his sandkings. He has a friend come over and film the ordeal for the sole purpose of sending the recording to Cath. What makes this even crueler is that Kress and Cath originally broke up due to Kress feeding a puppy Cath was very fond of to one of his other pets; in order to twist the knife even more, it's heavily implied that Kress bought a puppy that looked exactly like the previous one to feed to the sandkings. It's hardly any wonder that Cath is so horrified and traumatized by this that she takes it upon herself to break the sandkings' terrarium and make them invade Kress's home.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Kress spends the entire story being a horrible person and eventually even murders people to appease the sandkings. At the end of the story, he is captured by the orange sandkings and fed to their maw (which is now gigantic).
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: "Wo and Shade, Importers" is a mysterious shop that only popped up recently. It has a number of curious goods inside, but the story's protagonist (a Jerkass rich idiot who loves dangerous pets) is only interested in the eponymous sandkings, tiny insect-like creatures that form armies and war with each other, creating castles adorned with sculptures of their owner's face as if in worship. The story mentions that Wo and Shade have shops on multiple planets, and Martin intended to use them again in other stories, but, well, didn't.
- Psychic Powers: The sandking maws are capable of telepathy, which they use to control their mobiles. Later on in the story, the maws become powerful enough to influence Kress's thoughts and behavior.
- Sanity Slippage: Kress begins losing it toward the end, even killing his own would-be rescuers and feeding his friends to the Sandkings. Half this is due to the White Maw messing with his mind, half to him just going crazy and trying to mollify the Sandkings so they don't eat him.
- The Sociopath: Kress is a bored, rich man with zero empathy or capacity to even realize other people have feelings and exist distinctly from himself. He cares nothing for their lives and deaths and has even employed assassins himself.
- Thirsty Desert: Kress lives near a large desert and by the end, he has no working equipment and is left to wander the sands where he is left baking and thirsty as he awaits rescue.
- Too Dumb to Live: Kress violates every single instruction he's given, even when it becomes apparent he's dealing with dangerous creatures he cannot control. It bites him. Literally.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Even after Wo promises to rescue Kress after he begs them not to leave him to the Sandkings, he's still plotting to murder her and Shade later.
