First Person Vampire!

At least one member of the Download crew still wakes up in a sweat as the result of nightmares about his creative writing class in school. The teacher was a fearsome old man by the name of Williams who had a neat truism for every occasion, and one of his favourites was "never write a story in the first person, lad; it turns readers away."

Darren Shan obviously never went to creative writing classes with Mr Williams because he is now into his fourth book in his best-selling saga and he's still writing in the first person -- mind you, being a half-vampire helps, we suppose! Vampire Mountain sees Darren accompanying his mentor, Mr Crepsley, a fully fledged bloodsucker, on a long and perilous journey into the inhospitable mountains where the Vampire Generals hold their twelve-yearly council meetings. Mr Crepsley is being deliberately vague about why Darren must undergo the trek and why he must be presented to the Vampire Generals, confining himself to the observation that the hardships faced on the journey, during which the abominable vampaneze are a constant menace, should be viewed as a test of character.

The book is a gripping read from start to finish and we suspect that we're going to be hearing a lot more of Darren Shan's adventures because Warner Bros have apparently just paid a seven figure sum to secure the film options on the first two books in the series.