History CrapsackWorld / Literature

* [[http://www.barbarahambly.com/hambooks.htm#dark Darwath]] is being invaded by flesh-eating Lovecraftian monsters, but that's just their top problem; also, their world is sliding into an Ice Age, and the Church is zealously destroying the wizards and magic-tech which are the only things that just might save them. Hambly spends three books basically raising hopes in order to dash them. Even when, at the very last minute, [[spoiler: the wizard persuades all the monsters to emigrate to a warmer climate,]] that still leaves them with a collapsing ecology and a politico-religious state that makes Iraq look like a shining city on a hill.

* The world of TheWitcher books is full of monsters that are often better than humans they prey on, but are still hunted by titular Witchers - humans mutated into perfect monster killers - who are hated and loathed by common people. FantasticRacism is everywhere - HumansAreBastards abusing their position of power, Elves, who are forces to live in ghettos, aren't really that much better - other races generally sides with Elves but remember they weren't so nice before humans conquered them. TheEmpire is conquering other nations with military (and WarIsHell by the way) or economics, it is made clear that [[spoiler: soon after the end of the last book this world will suffer their equivalent of Black Death plague, which CorruptChurch will blame on magic users, leading to wizard holocaust]]. This world is so corrupted and rotten that [[spoiler: Ciri, who can travel between the worlds, abbandons it in the end, which means that when new ice age will come to wipe everybody out, there won't be any of her descedants to lead the survivors to another world]]. The games, despite being so dark they're often compared with DragonAge are still LighterAndSofter compared to the books.

* The world of TheWitcher books is full of monsters that are often better than humans they prey on, but are still hunted by titular Witchers - humans mutated into perfect monster killers - who are hated and loathed by common people. FantasticRacism is everywhere - HumansAreBasdards, Elves, who are forces to live in ghettos, aren't really that much better - other races generally sides with Elves but remember they weren't so nice before humans conquered them. TheEmpire is conquering other nations with military (and WarIsHell by the way) or economics, it is made clear that [[spoiler: soon after the end of the last book this world will suffer their equivalent of Black Death plague, which CorruptChurch will blame on magic users, leading to wizard holocaust]]. This world is so corrupted and rotten that [[spoiler: Ciri, who can travel between the worlds, abbandons it in the end, which means that when new ice age will come to wipe everybody out, there won't be any of her descedants to lead the survivors to another world]].

* In ''HarryPotter'', [[BigBad Voldemort]] and the Death Eaters want to turn the wizarding society into a CrapsackWorld by subjugating Muggle-born wizards in a very [[ANaziByAnyOtherName nazi-like]] fashion, and hunting down/killing {{Muggles}} for sport. This is Voldemort's eventual goal, but first he wants to kill Harry.

** For the believers in the last 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation, to a certain extent, it becomes a CozyCatastrophe as God provides protection for them and their equipment while everyone else suffers. Bloody rivers? God provides clean water. Sun-baking heat that scorches everything? Not if you're a believer. Pitch-black darkness in New Babylon? God will at least provide some level of visibility. The world's economic system crashing with the destruction of New Babylon? God has the believers covered in that area.

* The planet Dosadi in [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDosadiExperiment The Dosadi Experiment]] (by Frank Herbert) is so vile and horrid that anyone that wan't born on the planet is bound to get torn to shreds within a couple of hours. Jorj X. McKie, the protagonist, quickly finds that he must adapt to the mindset of the Dosadi natives if he is to survive his stay on the planet and complete his mission.

* ''LeftBehind'', basically, Yahweh takes the opportunity during the last 7 years of humanity to release all of his pent-up wrath at the sin of man. So at frequent intervals God would release horrific cataclysms: worldwide earthquake, 1/3 of the world's water supply turning into deadly poison or blood, utter darkness covering the Earth, hail of fire, plague of giant locusts whose bite cause painful boils for 6 months (those bitten are rendered immortal temporarily to prevent suicide), deathly cold, deathly heat, and then the Prince of Darkness himself gets in on the fun...

* The planet Dosadi in [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDosadiExperiment The Dosadi Experiment]] (by Frank Herbert) is so vile and horrid that anyone that wan't born on the planet is bound to get torn to shreds within a couple of hours. Jorj X. McKie, the protagonist, quickly finds that he must adapt to the mindset of the Dosadi natives if he is to survive his stay on the planet and complete his mission.
* The real world and the magical world of Harry Potter both have this to them. You have, in no real order, The Dursleys and their treatment of Harry (They get away with it and are even lauded for their treatment of him for the apparent lies told about him), the Hogwarts school system, with its capital punishment issues, its lax rules on teacher etiquette, its dismal management and the allowances of a ''whole established founder's house'' as a pack of bullies that can get away with it! This isn't even counting the Ministry of Magic, and its absurd notions on blocking the truth form being told, obscuring data, false testimony and trials without repercussions ''and'' hypocritical handling of their own laws and rules. It goes way past corruption to the point of incompetence.

* The planet Dosadi in [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDosadiExperiment The Dosadi Experiment]] (by Frank Herbert) is so vile and horrid that anyone that wan't born on the planet is bound to get torn to shreds within a couple of hours. Jorj X. McKie, the protagonist, quickly finds that he must adapt to the mindset of the Dosadi natives if he is to survive his stay on the planet and complete his mission.

** Well, no. The whole system works because the upper Party are like saints of evil, willing to forego their own pleasures for the sake of inflicting misery of others. So it is anything but normal. And anyway, as every bit of "truth" about the world beyond the protagonist's immediate line of view was [[spoiler: fed to him by O'Brien ForTheEvulz]], it cannot be taken seriously.

* The planet Dosadi in The Dosadi Experiment (by Frank Herbert) is so vile and horrid that anyone that wan't born on the planet is bound to get torn to shreds within a couple of hours. Jorj X. McKie, the protagonist, quickly finds that he must adapt to the mindset of the Dosadi natives if he is to survive his stay on the planet and complete his mission.

** On the other hand, every once in a while Borowski sets up the trope and subverts it, as in "The January Offensive," where the narrator's initial arguments in favor of this trope are countered with a more uplifting tale.

** Do you want to just be one of the vast majority who lives in blissful ignorance and just cares about living happily? Then, welcome to the Proles! The Proles are the vast majority of the population of Oceania who have been conditioned to never give a shit about politics, and have to live in {{Wretched Hive}} habitats with next to no technology, education, or luxury. The Party will never give a shit about you and your wants, and will treat you like an animal in an African reservation. But at least you can still have limitless fun and pleasure, right? Yes, but if you got too smart the Party can still kill you here.

* Gilead in ''A Handmaid's Tale'' by Margaret Attwood, where religious fundamentalism makes it a CrapsackWorld.

* ''TheJungle'' by Upton Sinclair. Anything which can go wrong, will in the [[NightmarishFacrory Packingtown]]. The FridgeHorror is, of course, that an investigation revealed all the claims of Sinclair ''valid'', except [[HumanResources rendering workers falling in processing vats into lard and fertilizer]].

* The ''CthulhuMythos''. An entire universe where Humanity is surrounded by unimaginably horrifying {{Eldritch Abomination}}s whom we are insignificant ants compared to them and will plunge all of us into madness, despair and insignificance when they awake from their slumber. Plus there's a TrueNeutral race of alien time travellers, who also confirm that the humanity will go extinct in a horrible way.

* [[SarcasmMode Welcome]] to the poster child and one of the most triumphant examples for {{Dystopia}}, the society of Oceania from ''[[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''. Through an omniscient mascot named Big Brother, a VastBureaucracy called The Party rules over Oceania's inhabitants. By the way, 1984 presents some Crapsack Worlds to choose from:

* [[SarcasmMode Welcome]] to the poster child and one of the {{Most Triumphant Example}}s for {{Dystopia}}, the society of Oceania from ''[[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]''. Through an omniscient mascot named Big Brother, a VastBureaucracy called The Party rules over Oceania's inhabitants. By the way, 1984 presents some Crapsack Worlds to choose from:

** What makes it even more HighOctaneNightmareFuel-eriffic is that [[spoiler:O'Brien]] spends a good part of his second conversation with Winston detailing exactly why the {{Dystopia}} of the book [[AndIMustScream will never, ''ever'', be dismantled]]. [[supersecretspoiler:Unless you include the Appendix..]]

* Holly Lisle and her Matrin novels. In the prequel of the books, you have a society of rich, powerful wizards that waste energy like it's nothing and when they run out, they use [[spoiler:the souls of the people of the Warrens, obliterating any chance they have to be reborn.]] The rest of the timeline isn't much better, with a world destroyed by magic, people turned into mutants and those same mutants hunted down and killed in brutal ways.

* ''{{Dragonlance}}'s'' Krynn at multiple points in its history, but most notably after the War of Souls. Pretty much the only race that's not doing terrible are minotaurs (and even ''they'' had some nasty issues to sort out). The elves, in particular, are ''fucked'' (One of their nations was conquered and turned into a minotaur colony, the other is underwater).
** Ironically, while the richer, powerful nations like the dwarves, the elves and the humans are having a very unpleasant time of it, things are looking up for the underdog races. Goblins look like they'll have a homeland of their own for once. The draconians have a future as a species. Even the ogres seem to be rising above the 'beasts and butchers' reputation (though if the minotaurs have anything to say about that...)

* Stephen Baxter's ''[[{{Literature/XeeleeSequence}} Xeelee Sequence]]'' -- millions of years of humanity in a massive HopelessWar of attrition against the Xeelee, who are also fighting a race of dark matter beings who want to render the universe unfit for baryonic life (like humanity). [[spoiler:They lose. First the humans, than the Xeelee. Humans manage to make it worse as the Xeelee knew they couldn't win so spent all of time creating a method to leave the universe into one better suited for our type of life. Humanity attacks the superstring and breaks it, with some humans making it thru to over universe that are not suited for our type of life and get to have a thousand years or so of descendants before using up the resources that allow them.]]
** Really, all of Baxter's books are {{Crapsack World}}s. That's about all the guy writes.