History AnyoneCanDie / Literature

* Harry Turtledove's war-themed novels stress this element quite heavily. Many characters, including long-lived favorites, die, sometimes in completely random incidents. He seems to have a quota of "At least one death per book."
** And in ''Colonization'', he just uses it to clear out characters he PutOnABus after the TimeSkip.

* Death of named characters is incredibly rare in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' before the final arc begins, particularly if the character has appeared in more than one book, but quite a few of the supporting characters (Jara Hamee, Tom, Edriss, Arbron, and the Auxiliary Animorphs) and two of the main character (Rachel and Ax) are dead by the series' end. Possibly more; the only main character confirmed to be alive after the ending is Cassie -- everyone else was last seen ramming their space fighter into the Blade Ship. And it's unclear if Ax's consciousness is [[AndIMustScream still alive inside The One]].

** Chewbacca's death in ''Vector Prime'' is the epitome of this trope in the StarWars EU.
** Characters first introduced in ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' are dying left and right. Zahn [[http://gabri-jade.livejournal.com/206266.html#cutid1 mentions]] that he's told that this is more realistic, and he admits that it is, but this is StarWars, and he prefers entertaining to realistic. He's a bit higher on the "idealistic" side of the scale.

%%Examples are now being arranged in alphabetical order, with the creators on top. Please follow this.

* How many people die over the main plot of an Creator/RLStine book generally depends on the series--usually, none for main ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'', one for main ''Literature/FearStreet'' or ''Fear Street Seniors'', and anywhere from a couple to a massacre for any other side series. However, it's almost impossible to predict which books will kill a random (and potentially likeable) character at the end, which will KillEmAll, and which will leave everyone unscathed.

* In Simon Green's ''Literature/{{Deathstalker}}'' series, after 1.2 million words, Owen is cut down in a simple street fight-- and when he's dead they even steal his boots. He does get better in the sequel series, but a lot of other and protagonists don't.

* In ''Literature/TheEdgeChronicles'' it doesn't matter if you're a named character - you're probably going to die before the end of the book. Oh, you're still alive at the end of the book? Well here comes the prologue of the next book explaining how things have gone to hell, dumping you in a bad situation with events that're most likely going to result in your death in ''this'' book. Heck, even the main character of each sequence dies in the sequence after theirs!

** Anne Tyler's ''The Amateur Marriage'', which also revisits the two main characters at intervals throughout their lives, also does this - as well as the protagonists getting a divorce about halfway through the book. However, the marriage has changed the course of the surviving partner's life, so the rest of the book deals with that.

* Apparently, a body count of six-billion-plus in book one wasn't enough for ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'' - characters continue to die in every book following. By the series' end, fewer than ten ''Mayflower'' passengers were still alive.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' plays this trope to the point of the many main character deaths having become an internet meme - contrasting JK Rowling's quote, that "It's hard killing off so many characters" with a picture of George R. R. Martin, responding "You're adorable." Who initially seems to be the main hero [[DecoyProtagonist doesn't even survive the first book]]. Parts of his family, their pets, their friends, their extended family, even some of their enemies, as well as beloved main characters (and their fairly fleshed-out rivals) from different story arcs bite it within the first book. ''[[ArcWords Valar morghulis]]''.

* ''Literature/TheUnknownSoldier''. About half of the cast is killed, and most of the surviving characters are side characters. Out of the four most central main characters, only one survives the war alive - and he too is wounded and exits the story before the book ends.

* ''Literature/WearingTheCape'' begins with a terrorist attack that leaves bodies all over, the Sentinels are shown to have lost several members before the story begins, the murder of a street-level hero is casually alluded to, and finally, in the attack on Whittier Base no fewer than three Sentinels die--including two main characters.

* The characters in Creator/DerekRobinson's WWI and WWII novels.

* The ''Literature/DeepgateCodex'' books.

* So do the characters in Creator/DerekRobinson's WWI and WWII novels.
** Rather than "Anyone CAN Die" it's more like "Everyone Probably WILL Die," particularly in the WWI books.
* David Drake's military fiction (particularly his ''Literature/HammersSlammers'') makes David Weber's Honor Harrington look like a piker. Only a handful of characters have relative immunity to this trope, though one apparently gets the axe, only for readers to later strongly suspect it was faked.

* The ''Literature/DeepgateCodex'' books. Well, it ''does'' take place in a WorldHalfEmpty.

* The ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'' trilogy kills off major characters in every book, and the last book ''Allegiant'', kills off Tris the main character, which was shocking to the fandom. ''Allegiant'' is now regarded as one of the saddest YA books.

* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' goes in and out with this trope. Most characters seem to be safe but occasionally a major character will be taken out to cement the noir nature of the series once more. Carmichael, a character who in most other stories would survive the entire series, gets shredded by a super-werewolf in book two. Morgan, Harry's AntiVillain nemesis for a good portion of the series, gets killed off in a nasty way by a real villain.
** As a real swerve ''Literature/{{Changes}}'' kills off Harry Dresden himself. The next book, ''Literature/GhostStory'', revolves around Harry solving that murder as a ghost. Though it then ends with him coming back to life.
** Susan also dies in ''Changes,'' and ''Literature/ColdDays'' kills off Lily and Maeve.

* The fourth, fifth and sixth ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books each ended with an increasingly major character dying. Then along came [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the seventh]], which was a "bloodbath of epic proportions." It was so bad that Muggle Net took bets on character deaths before it even came out. Who died? Dobby, Hedwig, Mad-Eye Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour, Tonks, Remus Lupin, Fred Weasley, Colin Creevey, Peter Pettigrew, Ted Tonks, Bathilda Bagshot, Severus Snape, Vincent Crabbe, Bellatrix Lestrange, Lord Voldemort, 50 unnamed people, and oh, yeah, [[NearDeathExperience Harry Potter himself]] (sort of). And those were just the major characters. The complete list can be found [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_deaths#Harry_Potter_and_the_Deathly_Hallows here]].

* RealityEnsues is in full effect in ''Literature/TheNexusSeries''. As of "Crux", Wats, Ted Prang, Mai, Warren Becker, Ilya, Dr. Holtzman, Jake, and Shiva are all dead, with things only to get worse with the looming war between humans and posthumans.

* [[Literature/{{Dragons}} The Last Dragon Chronicles]]: Taken to extremes in ''The Fire Ascending''. [[spoiler:Liz...]] Seriously!

* Taylor Anderson's ''Literature/{{Destroyermen}}'' series has many of the original destroyermen die a few at a time each book. This also includes several important Lemurians, such as Nakja-Mur, the High Chief of Baalkpan, who's killed during the climactic battle in the third book. Each new ship, though, is named after a fallen main (or secondary) character. However, WordOfGod is that several characters, such as Captain Matthew Reddy and Chack Sab-At cannot die for plot reasons, and the fifth book opens with a quote from Courtney Bradford's book, which he is supposed to publish twelve years later, making his survival a ForegoneConclusion.

** So far, the fourth series seems to be working on some form of subversion of SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: If you are a minor character who has been alive since the first series, you ''will'' be arbitrarily killed off without warning. Meanwhile, ''The Last Hope'' features ''multiple'' cases of TheHeroDies.

** In the ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'', a number of Rogues and other characters in the Stackpole books are lost, but since he never managed to get the reader to make an emotional investment there's not much impact. When Creator/AaronAllston writes the Wraiths, each character is individual and interesting, and their deaths are more shocking and saddening. Jesmin Ackbar, Falynn Sandskimmer, Eurssk "Grinder" Tri'ag, Ton Phanan, Castin Donn.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' plays this trope to the point of the many main character deaths having become an internet meme - contrasting JK Rowling's quote, that "It's hard killing off so many characters" with a picture of George R. R. Martin, responding "You're adorable." Who initially seems to be the main hero [[DecoyProtagonist doesn't even survive the first book]]. Parts of his family, their pets, their friends and extended family as well as beloved main characters from different story arcs bite it within the first book. ''[[ArcWords Valar morghulis]]''.

** Probably among the saddest is Leto II in ''Literature/GodEmperorOfDune''. Spending 3,500 years as a worm hybrid, hating what he had become both physically and by his [[NecessaryEvil actions]]. He and his bride to be die just as he's found love in a way he's never experienced before. Because of how deep his transformation was, his death was also excrutiatingly painful.

* The work of Creator/StephenKing. [[InfantImmortality Not even children are safe]].

* ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', starting with the utter lack of InfantImmortality, displays this trope more and more in each book, to the point where characters start dropping like flies in the third book the second they have finished furthering whatever minor plot points they had to serve.

** As a real swerve ''Changes'' kills off Harry Dresden himself. The next book, ''Ghost Story'', revolves around Harry solving that murder as a ghost. Though it then ends with him coming back to life.
** Susan also dies in ''Changes,'' and ''Cold Days'' kills off Lily and Maeve.

** The Bene Gesserit Mother Superior dies in both ''Literature/HereticsOfDune'' and ''ChapterhouseDune'' (Taraza and Odrade respectively). Miles Teg, shortly after being setup as a powerful super-being, also dies in the former.