Simon Kress has a passion for unusual pets. He goes for the cute, he goes for the intelligent, and the edgy. He visits all of his usual haunts looking for some new amusement, and failing to find it decides to try a new establishment – Shade and Wo. Wo hooks him up with some new alien life forms known as “Sandkings.” These beings are about the size of insects and build castles which they fortify – then the different “kingdoms” wage war on one another. The kings of the sandkings are actually queen

Simon Kress has a passion for unusual pets. He goes for the cute, he goes for the intelligent, and the edgy. He visits all of his usual haunts looking for some new amusement, and failing to find it decides to try a new establishment – Shade and Wo. Wo hooks him up with some new alien life forms known as “Sandkings.” These beings are about the size of insects and build castles which they fortify – then the different “kingdoms” wage war on one another. The kings of the sandkings are actually queens and the queens are known as “maws” because they exist to be fed. They have psionic powers and can communicate with their mobile units telepathically. The most interesting thing about these particular pets is that they can be persuaded to worship human gods. Once the sandkings are established in their home, if one transmits a holographic image of a person for a period of time into their environs, they will begin to worship it – will carve its image on their castles. This is what hooks Simon Kress – that and the battles that his sandkings will fight for his entertainment. So he buys them.



Simon Kress, however, does not care for Wo’s instructions on how to raise his sandkings. Impatient for them to grow and to fight and to worship him, he begins to starve them so that they’ll fight over food. Then he starts having parties where his friends come over to watch them war. One of his friends in particular starts bringing other combatants over hoping to best the sandkings, but they persevere. The sandkings do carve Kress’ face into their castles, but over time the faces begin to change – no longer kind or benevolent or intelligent, the faces become cruel and evil, and it starts to take a toll on Kress.



Kress himself is a rather sick and unbalanced individual. A former lover of his attends one of his parties and then makes a complaint to a local officer about Kress’ pets. The officer is eventually bribed and sent off, but Kress simmers with revenge. He makes a vid of his sandkings murdering a puppy, which he sends to his ex. She shows up at his place and smashes open the sandkings’ terrarium. That’s when all hell REALLY breaks loose (along WITH the sandkings). Their awful god has warped them and now they’re out to get him. Kress lives in fear, and the sandkings keep demanding food. When he runs out of things in his fridge, he starts feeding them his friends. And when things grow VERY bleak, he calls Wo, who admonishes him for what he’s done, but who agrees to help him. She tells him to get the hell out of dodge and she and Shade will pick him up later. Kress goes, but the sandkings by this time are so powerful that they are able to communicate with HIM psionically. And they lead him back and trap him.



Truly fascinating and horrifying. But one can’t really feel any pity for Simon Kress who deserves what he gets. Apparently the sandkings can grow up and be sane beings, but not in the case of Kress’. We don’t find out what happens when the sandkings *do* get him back, but one wonders if they eat him or if they just keep him around and continue to worship him or what. They supposedly become VERY intelligent, so perhaps they just torture him and then throw him into the maw.