Chronicles from the World of Guilt begins with the end of the world.
When the whale-like being known as Guilt appears and begins orbiting the Earth, its shadow corrupting all it touches, humanity is broken. This collection of short pieces chronicles the aftermath, spanning millennia of a progressively stranger, more surreal, more dangerous world. There’s horror and fear and peril, but there are also moments of whimsy and wholesomeness as humans do what they do best: find new sources of hope.
You can buy the book from a bunch of places, so please do that!
Amazon (worldwide)
Bookshop.org (UK) – Bookshop.org (US)
Waterstones (UK) – Barnes & Noble (US)
Book Depository (worldwide)
Content notice
Below is my earnest attempt at a comprehensive list of content warnings, so potential readers can decide whether they might want to avoid certain stories. Any omissions are entirely my fault, and if you spot anything that you think should be included, please let me know so I can update the list.
Some of these warnings come close to being spoilers, but I think it’s important that readers have all the information they need to decide to what content they want to be exposed.
| Story | Content notes |
| The Coming of Guilt | large-scale disaster and death |
| Children | child in danger, adult death |
| What Guilt Wanted | unpleasant eating, gory murder, body horror |
| Worst Party Ever | gory injury and death, surreal horror, body horror |
| Today My Girlfriend Turned Into A Tree | body transformation |
| My Friend, The Moon | one mention of body transformation, reference to humans dying and being eaten, surreal horror |
| A Game Not Word Playing | none |
| That Which I Say, You Understand | existential fear |
| Hypotheses on the Origins of Guilt | none |
| The Storm on the Sea | peril at sea, peaceful death, sea creatures |
| A Menagerie All In One | body horror (animal and human), gory death |
| The People and the People | mention of bigotry |
| Theory and Practice | death (albeit somewhat slapstick) |
| Twice | suicide |
| Exploiting the Source of Plenty | none |
| He Sits Atop the Planet | none |
| Lost Time | existential dread (time, ageing) |
| It Must Be Done | death |
| Oh, The Places I’ve Seen | none |
| Stained Glass | body horror |
| The King of Wasted Years | peaceful death |
| An Improper Sceptic | none |
| The Polypod | sea creature, harm to an animal |
| Information Hazard | implication of horrific death |
| Value Is In the Thousand Eyes of the Vast Beholder | none |
| Titanfell | death of an animal |
| After the Time of Guilt | remains of a deceased animal |
| Appendix: Foreword and Errata from the Second Edition of ‘Characterising Guilt’ | discussion of transformation of humans and animals |
| Appendix: Introduction to the Third Edition of ‘Characterising Guilt’ | none |
Chris Durston 