Cheap Sandkings (Ebook) (George R. Martin) Price

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Customer Reviews of Sandkings

One of the most original SF short stories yet written
I read Sandkings over 15 years ago and still call it to mind when asked about my favorite SF works. It contains some of the most singularly chilling moments I've read while slowly exposing you to one horrifying revelation after another about Martin's unique and brilliant life forms, which consist primarily of a large mouth (the maw) and a powerful psionic brain - but oh how they hunger and grow... (a good friend actually dropped the book at one point because of a particularly scary moment).

Sandkings is a short, extremely rewarding read for anyone seeking a fresh, exciting, adrenaline-filled afternoon with a brilliantly original story.

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A good book to read on a dark night
It's only a collection of short stories, and an overlooked one at that. You have to scrounge around used book stores to find a copy, but it is worth the trouble. The rest of the stories are okay, but the kicker is the title story. With a moving plot, plenty of action, and irony that has made me read it again and again, it's the best 60 page story I've read. Sandkings tells of one man whose intrest in savage and ruthless pets goes too far when he purchases the quasi-psionic haveminds that are sandkings. Sandkings are insect like creatures with a combined mind nearly as intelligent as a human's. They war, make alliances, call truces, and worship their owner. Despite the warnings to the contrary from the merchant, the main character artificially sets up war by starving the sandkings, and in doing so twists them to hatred against him.

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King of Human Foibles
The thread running through Geore R. R. Martin's work is a powerful intuitive grasp of human weakness. Sandkings gives the reader the most direct look at the author's power through the medium of a lean, horrible, funny, and unforgettable short story.