In the short story Sandkings by George R. R. Martin, a wealthy collector who enjoys keeping exotic and dangerous animals as pets. After many of his pets starve to death, he discovers a strange, intelligent insect-like creature known as “sandkings.” The sandkings are known to wage war and even form alliances with other hives, as well as worshipping their owner as a god. However, Martin shows throughout the story that being cruel and mistreating others will only lead to harming oneself. The story begins with Simon Kress, an affluent collector of strange and exotic animals, returning from a business trip to find that most of his pets had starved to death in his absence. He travels to the futuristic spaceport-city of Asgard to find some new playthings, …show more content…
While they look like nothing more than commonplace insects that can be differentiated by their color, sandkings are actually intelligent aliens, with each color tribe having a single hivemind. Simon first dismisses them as nothing but strangely intelligent bugs, but becomes interested when he realizes the sandkings not only build impressive castles but also wage war against and make alliances with other sandking tribes. They are even known to worship their owner by carving their face into their castles. Convinced, Simon lets Jala Wo and her workers set up a terrarium in his manor for the sandkings. At first Simon’s sadistic side is sated as he watches the sandkings mercilessly kill each other. He gives them food each day to keep them happy, but observes that the four tribes were not fighting. Frustrated, Simon began to starve his pets, and soon the sandkings began to slaughter each other. Wanting to show off his belligerent pets, Simon holds a grand party, inviting over thirty of his close friends and acquaintances, including Jala Wo. The guests watched in fascination as the sandkings began to make war on one another - the red and white tribes, which had formed a temporary alliance,