Book: The 4 Powers of Daren Saner

The 4 Powers of Daren Saner
Michael Oehley , 2010

This book is a little sad for me because the author came to visit my school and talked to my students and I was unfortunately sick that day :( Nevertheless, our librarian was able to get me a signed copy which made it better.

Daren is a bit of an outcast on the starship Superia - he's the child of a high ranking mother and a clone father who wasn't supposed to be able to have children, so he doesn't really fit in. He's also got an eye for trouble, along with some of his closer friends. It all culminates one day when they manage to sneak into a highly secure area of the starship and Daren retrieves a stone. Soon after he wakes up, no longer aboard Superia and no longer himself, and no longer in his own time. Instead he finds that he is in the past, the forbidden child, with four magical powers. He must use those powers to save the world he's found himself in and his own world on Superia.

This is a really lovely first novel which dips into both fantasy and science fiction. Daren is a particularly strong character, both when he's himself and when he's 'someone else'. There are a number of other strong characters as well, but I particularly liked Kara who helped Daren in the other world and Hawk-Eye, the old sailor. It's a very strongly built world, though I would like to see more of it to really get into the details.

I would connect this book to the Gregor the Overlander books by Suzanne Collins, with the different worlds, the quests and the use of riddles. I'd also connect it to Philip Reeves' Larklight - although the ships are very different, both authors create very strong worlds.

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