Martin was inspired by a college friend at Northwestern University who had a piranha tank and would sometimes throw goldfish into it between horror film screenings.
[2] He had planned for it to be part of a trilogy, with Wo and Shade running businesses on several worlds, but the concept fell through.
[3] "Sandkings" is set in the same fictional "Thousand Worlds" universe as several of Martin's other works, including Dying of the Light, Nightflyers, A Song for Lya, "The Way of Cross and Dragon" and the stories collected in Tuf Voyaging.
[4] Simon Kress, a wealthy playboy on the planet Baldur, loves to collect dangerous, exotic animals.
When most of his pets die after being left alone during a long business trip, he ventures into the city to find replacements.
He is unsatisfied by the offerings in the stores he has patronized in the past, but eventually he comes across a mysterious new establishment called Wo & Shade.
Kress observes the installation of his sandkings and watches his four colonies (colored white, black, red, and orange) begin to build their castles.
She assures him that if they are kept comfortable, they will engage in intrigue and wars that are endlessly more entertaining than if they are made to squabble over food.
By the time he returns, the sandkings have taken over: the black and red have built castles in the garden, while the whites have taken over the basement.
Kress finally decides to contact Wo, who explains that as the sandkings grow larger, the maw becomes more intelligent, and eventually reaches sentience.
At that point the mobiles mature into their final instar, which varies based on what form the maw believes is suitable, but is always equipped with opposable thumbs and the ability to manipulate technology.
In 1987, "Sandkings" was adapted as the seventh of the DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel series, by writer Doug Moench and artists Pat Broderick and Neal McPheeters.
In 2021, Netflix was announced to be planning a film based on Sandkings, with Gore Verbinski directing and Dennis Kelly adapting the book.