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* The end of the Drizzt Do'Urden novel ''The Legacy'' has Drizzt and his friends fighting off the drow and [[Heroic Sacrifice|Artemis Entreri... and Wulfgar dying]] to save his friends from a demon, the brave dwarven priest who was going to officiate his and Catti-brie's wedding being crushed to death, and a threat of an army of drow coming upon Mithral Hall. Yay?
** ''The Hunter's Blades'' trilogy finishes with Mithral Hall holding out against the newly-founded Kingdom of Dark Arrows long enough and bloodily enough that King Obould decides to halt his advance. Gerti Frostdottir, the frost giant priestess, decides to sever her ties with the orc king. Drizzt and Catti-brie finally get horizontal and then get married. The Companions of the Hall have once again come through alive and mostly well. But the orcs have gained a large foothold in the Silver Marches, Pikel Bouldershoulder has lost an arm; Wulfgar's wife, an allied human mage, several of Drizzt's new friends, dozens if not hundreds of elven warriors, hundreds of humans (including civilians), and hundreds if not thousands of dwarven soldiers are dead; as well as many, many orks but well, they had it coming, and Wulfgar's daughter has been kidnapped. On top of it all, Lady Alustriel, the figurehead of the Silver Marches, is leaning on her people to let the orcs stay, as dislodging them would be far too costly to be worth it.
** Salvatore seems to be leaning heavily towards a [[Bittersweet Ending]] these days, likely because of the crap the campaign setting goes through. So while in ''The Orc King'' the Kingdom of Dark Arrows and Mithral Hall become uneasy allies and Wulfgar's daughter is found, Wulfgar leaves the [[True Companions]] for Icewind Dale, giving his daughter back to her blood mother. In ''The Pirate King'', the city of Luskan is all but destroyed in a war to dislodge its hidden
*** On top of that Cadderly's spirit can't move on, because he has to continue circling the ruins of Spirit Soaring to renew the spell that prevents the Ghost King from coming back. Good times, huh?
*** Oh, and its stated flatout that Mielikki's garden is a "private" afterlife, so no [[Together in Death]] for Drizzt. Ouch.
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* Scott Lynch:
** ''The Lies of Locke Lamora'': Locke successfully takes revenge on the Grey King, but he is left with only one of his friends still alive, and he has to leave Camorr forever. Locke himself sums it up: "So this is what winning feels like....it can go **** itself."
** The sequel ''Red Seas Under Red Skies'': Sure, Locke and Jean have brought down the Archon and gotten away from Tal Verrar, and the pirates aren't going to be hunted down and killed, but in the meantime Jean's girlfriend is dead, they failed in the robbery they came for in the first
* This is about the best you can hope for with anything by [[Harry Turtledove]]. If it's not a straight-out [[Downer Ending]], it typically goes like this: There's an overall victory for the good guys, but the world is irreperably changed, a lot of good people died or have their lives ruined, and a lot of bad guys are no worse off.
** [[Justified Trope]]: most of what Turtledove writes is alternative history fiction, which is generally presented in such a way as to be as "[[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism|realistic]]" as
*** I have to say, the description of how Turtledove's stories typically end above sounds a hell of a lot like how most "victories" in the real world actually turn out.
*** Subverted, however, to a considerable extent, in ''The Guns of the South'': {{spoiler|the Afrikaner extremists see their attempt to convert the Confederacy into a future ally of apartheid South Africa fail, General Lee's plan to free the slaves wins passage through the Confederate Congress, and Nate Caudell and Mollie get married with a pretty decent chance of a life happy ever after. The book ends on a definitively upbeat note, with Lee acknowledging the homage of his freedwoman servant and getting ready to start another day as President of the Confederate States.}}
* Pretty much every book in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' series, due to heavy loss of life during each and every final battle. At All Costs is the worst, with the Manticoran Home Fleet completely wiped out and her friend Alistair McKeon killed only suceeding in gutting the Haven offensive forces with their defenses and production still intact.
** By ''Storm from Shadows'' they stop being bittersweet and start being [[Downer Ending
*** The corner has been turned as of ''Mission of Honor.'' {{spoiler|Oyster Bay has finally had its trigger pulled (with nearly every major shipyard in the Manticore system destroyed as a result), and the war with the Sollies has finally started.... but on the other hand, the RMN has proven itself capable of kicking the Sollie navy's ass without trying, and Manticore and Haven have (finally!) made peace (as well as agreeing to a military alliance that will probably take the starch out of the SLN's impending attack of Manticore)}}.
* The ending of Patricia Bray's ''Chronicles of Josan'' trilogy. Josan, whose soul has been forced into the body of the prince (and later emperor) Lucius, discovers that the body will die in the strain between two souls. He sets things up so he can banish himself, as the interloper, but Lucius takes over the body at the last second to banish himself instead of Josan, having come to the conclusion that Josan is the better leader of the two of them, and more fit for the office of emperor.
* Cormac McCarthy's ''The Road''. The father dies, completely uncertain and afraid of his son's future in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's believed to have been a worthwhile sacrifice, however, as his son was finally able to find some place safe to be raised by decent people. The ending is then given even more bittersweetness as the epilogue implies that humanity will never be able to recover from the catastrophe that befell the earth, and will eventually die out completely. Still, given McCarthy's usual [[Kill'Em All]] tactic, this is practically a parade with balloons and circus animals.
* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]] [[Horus Heresy]]'' novel ''The Flight of the Eisenstein'', of all the loyal Marines who fled, three survive. Their last companions are slaughtered by one of their number's succumbing to Chaos taint. One has become [[The Atoner]]. They are effectively prisoners on the Moon. The Lord Regent himself comes to assure
** The ''[[Horus Heresy]]'' itself has a very bittersweet
* At the end of [[Graham McNeill]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]] [[Ultramarines (novel)|Ultramarines]]'' novel ''The Killing Ground'', the ghosts have been laid, the world is not put under Exterminis, Uriel and Pasanius have been cleared of any taint by the Grey Knights and returned home, but the Unfleshed are all
* In [[James Swallow]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novel ''[[Blood Angels|Deus Sanguinius]]'', the forces of Chaos have been foiled, and Rafen has even persuaded the Blood Angels to purify rather than [[Reformed but Rejected|execute]] the repentent ones who had been tricked into following Chaos. But {{spoiler|Rafen [[Cain and Abel|has killed his brother Arkio]] with his own hand}}
* One of the [[Trope Codifier
* Pretty much all of Black Flame's ''[[Friday the 13th]]'', ''[[A Nightmare on Elm Street]]'' and ''Jason X'' books end bittersweet (or downright bad).
* The final volume of the ''Konrad'' [[Warhammer Fantasy]] novels features Konrad defeating the Skaven plot to take over the Empire, and screwing with his adversary's plans. Unfortunately for Konrad, said enemy escapes, and he is forced to behead his first love; for bonus points, it's implied he may not survive what he's getting into at the end. By this point, most if not all of his friends and allies are dead. Of course, this is from a ''[[Crapsack World|Games Workshop]]'' universe, so it should come as no surprise that this is actually the ''most'' optimistic part of the novel.
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** Some of the earlier ones aren't exactly uplifting. By the end of ''Death Masks'', the Denarians' plot has been foiled, but Susan has left town again, and Harry comes to accept that they will never be together. He even puts away the pictures and engagement ring he'd kept on his mantle for three years. At the end of ''White Night'', the current antagonists in the White Court have been eliminated in the coup, but Lash (the reformed shadow of a fallen angel) sacrificed herself to shield Harry from a psychic attack.
** The end of ''Ghost Story'': {{spoiler|Turns out that he was [[Not Quite Dead]]...but that means he's ''still'' the Winter Knight.}}
* In Nick Kyme's ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' novel ''[[Salamanders|Salamander]]'', many of them live, and two have made peace with [[Hurting Hero|their troubles]], but N'keln has risen to the occasion and is a fine
* ''[[Warrior Cats]]'': ''Sunrise''. Hollyleaf is presumed dead, and almost everyone's lives have been ruined (it's implied that Leafpool is suicidal), but the prophecy still hasen't been completely fulfilled, and there's going to be another series. From Jayfeather's point of view, the continuation of the series preventing this ending from being final apparantly makes all of this less sad. I mean, things can only get better from here, right? ''[[Tempting Fate|Right]]''!?
* In ''[[The Three Musketeers (novel)|The Three Musketeers]]'', the title heroes (plus d'Artagnan) win out against Milady and Richelieu, but at the cost of the death of Madame Bonacieux, d'Artagnan's love interest, not to mention how the trial of Milady has soiled the soldier's life for his three friends, leaving him alone within the Musketeers by book's end.
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* Lots and lots of [[Poul Anderson]]'s stories. '''Especially''' the Dominic Flandry stories from the [[Technic History]] series. Flandry succeeds, but [[Cartwright Curse|loses any woman he truly loves]], feels guilty about hurting the feelings of the others, and in one story is troubled by the contrast between a number of honest, decent rebels, who are '''at best''' going to be locked up for the rest of their lives, and the decadent, despicable Emperor. The prequel novel had a back-cover blurb which summed up:
{{quote|Though through this and his succeeding adventures he will struggle gloriously and win (usually) mighty victories, Dominic Flandry is essentially a tragic figure: a man who knows too much, who knows that battle, scheme, and even betray as he will, in the end it will mean nothing. For with the relentlessness of physical law the Long Night approaches. The Terran Empire is dying...}}
* ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'': Way to go Ralph! You've managed to get the Navy to rescue you and the other survivors on the island!! ...So does this mean we can forget about Simon's and Piggy's deaths, destroying the island, and proving that [[Humans Are
* [[Monster Blood Tattoo]]: Rossamund and the majority of his friends survive all the adventures, but he can never see any of them again.
* [[The Tomorrow Series]]: At the end, the war is over... {{spoiler|but Australia's lost a lot of territory to the invaders, and several of Ellie's [[True Companions]] are dead. }}Then you get to the sequel series...and [[It Got Worse]].
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