Sorrow & Delight

Kuntz (Claire) sets this half-epic romantic fantasy against a desert backdrop that’s as featureless as her narrative. Adolescent wanderer Sorrow finds her way to the secluded home of the elite, pure-blood wizards of Clan Satakarni. After proving her worth and earning the name Delight, she trains with the Clan until love for another forces her from their midst, out into the world, where she chooses to return to her wanderer ways. Through a series of amusing, mostly unrelated events, she finds herself face to face with her Clan once again, and she must decide whether to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the world. Despite occasionally charming characterization, the predictable writing will leave readers struggling to connect. Lack of context and relatively abrupt transitions litter a detail-barren story plagued by an emotionally static protagonist who’s caught in a world of semidynamic plot devices disguised as secondary characters. (Feb.)