"Joy was the name given to her at birth, and it was long remarked that she might have been the very last thing in the universe to have been named so."

The universe is darkening. Joy and happiness are being sucked out of everyone, everywhere, and nobody seems to know how or why it’s happening. Except a young woman who goes by the very name of Joy. She’s sure she’s found the root cause of it all, and she wants to put an end to the universe’s misery. Joy has too much at stake to allow grief to overcome the only person she has left.

Stealing a spacecraft and crash-landing on a frozen planet, Joy begins to use her mysterious sense to track down and experience the memories of a man named Lothar. Through Lothar’s various memories of an ancient tradition called Christmas, Joy witnesses the destruction of happiness and watches as a dreadful war claims the lives of many. But how did all of this suffering spread from this planet across the rest of the universe?

As sadness begins to overcome Joy herself, there may yet be one chance for both Joy and Lothar to put an end to this spread of distress. But it will require a great sacrifice. One that’s too terrible to consider for those that they love…

Inspired by the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, Joy’s Lament is a tale of happiness, grief, love, and loss from the author of Dreams of a Damselfly and Which Way is North?