History WretchedHive / Literature

* Verel in ''[[DavidEddings The Tamuli]]''.

* Han Dold City in DouglasAdams' ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', which seems to be controlled by "police tribes" which lay ambushes for each other, and in which bass players are machine-gunned for playing the wrong riff one too many times.

* In Literature/TheCandlemassRoad,The Disputed Lands are a lawless place inhabited by reivers and killers.

* Tarbean in TheKingkillerChronicle.

* Ysai, the capital city of the planet Gammu from Heretics of Dune definitely counts. Miles Teg notes the development of the city was purposefully directed into something "worse than ugly", and Reverend Mother Lucilla is eventually driven to tears after seeing the corrupt, desperate and dangerously violent state of the city's inhabitants firsthand. Think about that for a moment. The city was so bad it made a ''Reverend Mother'' cry.

* ''Literature/TheReynardCycle'': The Anthill, Calyx's slum quarter, is a perfect example. The Calvarians, Isengrim in particular, tends to view all Southern cities this way.

* SimonRGreen created at least two of these: Haven in the ''HawkAndFisher'' series, and the eponymous district of ''{{Nightside}}''.

* If you ever end up on [[JohnCarterOfMars Barsoom]], avoid the old cities like Torqas and Warhoon (''especially'' Warhoon). They tend to be crawling with either Green Martians, white apes, or both. Phundahl and Toonol are also pretty horrible; the former is filled with religious fanatics, while the latter is populated by the closest Martian equivalent to Objectivists.

* In Literature/TheCandlemassRoad,The Disputed Lands are a lawless place inhabited by reivers and killers

* [[Literature/{{Bas-LagCycle}} New Crobuzon]] from ChinaMieville's ''PerdidoStreetStation'' [[Literature/TheScar and]] [[Literature/IronCouncil sequels]] blows most examples here out of the water in terms of sheer ugliness. It's ruled by vicious capitalists who ignore crime against ordinary citizens, but send death squads to deal with dissenters, essentially ensuring that the city stays a brutal lawless mess forever.

* * In Literature/TheCandlemassRoad,The Disputed Lands are a lawless place inhabited by reivers and killers

* Lankhmar of Fritz Leiber's ''FafhrdAndTheGrayMouser'' series.

* The city of Godwin in the Series/HostileTakeover series is run by a mixture of armed gangs and literally feuding corporations. There is no law enforcement beyond what someone's willing to pay for.

* Any urban environment in WilliamGibson's novels counts as this, but particularly the settlements that each of his cyberpunk trilogies are named after: [[Literature/SprawlTrilogy the sprawl]] -- a continent spanning enclosed megacity; and [[Literature/BridgeTrilogy the bridge]], a lawless community built on the carcass of a crumbling Golden Gate Bridge. Literature/{{Idoru}}'s 'Walled City', an online community comprised almost entirely of hackers and (modeled after the real life wretched hive, Kowloon Walled City) might also count, despite being virtual.

** This is at least how Winston and the party members view the Proles, due to party propaganda and the standard class warfare. To the Proles themselves, it's just your standard poor/working-class lifestyle, to the point that an older who remembers life before IngSoc considers there to be no real difference from his life before the revolution, save for the absence of a few novelties like top hats and coat-tails. And the Proles themselves are the lucky ones; Big Brother doesn't care so much if he doesn't consider you important.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Ankh-Morpork in the earlier books; The Shades turn this all the way past eleven up to ''one-twenty-five'', to the point where "a ghastly frieze of tortured silhouettes" on a wall is deemed less likely to attract attention than "fresh paint". And informing three very drunk Watchmen that they'd blundered into the Shades was enough to sober them instantly.

** The Dipple--a refugee camp featured in several novels, such as ''literature/{{Catseye}}'' and ''Judgment on Janus''. Its ugliness is thrown into sharp relief by the fact that it is located in Tikil, the only city on the pleasure planet of Korwar.

* [[Literature/{{Bas-LagCycle}}New Crobuzon]] from ChinaMieville's ''PerdidoStreetStation'' [[Literature/TheScar and]] [[Literature/IronCouncil sequels]] blows most examples here out of the water in terms of sheer ugliness. It's ruled by vicious capitalists who ignore crime against ordinary citizens, but send death squads to deal with dissenters, essentially ensuring that the city stays a brutal lawless mess forever.

** The Dipple--a refugee camp featured in several novels, such as ''Catseye'' and ''Judgment on Janus''. Its ugliness is thrown into sharp relief by the fact that it is located in Tikil, the only city on the pleasure planet of Korwar.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': Ankh-Morpork in the earlier books; The Shades turn this all the way past eleven up to ''one-twenty-five'', to the point where "a ghastly frieze of tortured silhouettes" on a wall is deemed less likely to attract attention than "fresh paint". And informing three very drunk Watchmen that they'd blundered into the Shades was enough to sober them instantly. \\
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Havelock Vetinari seriously cleaned up the city, though, by ''legalizing the Thieves' Guild'' and putting them in charge of regulating the muggings. And the Watch became very efficient later under the influence of Captain Carrot and Samuel Vimes. To the point Ankh-Morpork is in the later books a bustling center of economic activity where, according to ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', "being attacked while going about your lawful business in Ankh-Morpork was now merely a possibility instead of, as it once was, a matter of course." You can still get killed at night just by wandering in the wrong places, but the pragmatic Ankh-Morporkians consider this "[[TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch suicide]]". And a sure sign of being either a tourist (and thus accidental) or TooDumbToLive since if you're a local you ought to know better.