Hello, I thought I'd take some time out to post about my favourite series of books. So let's get started.

Book 1

The Darren Shan Saga is about a young child called Darren Shan, he has a best friend called Steve Leapord. They decide to go and visit a freak show out of town where their whole lives change. Darren becomes amazed by a spider that he's seen at the Freak show, whereas the spiders owner (Larten Crepsley/Vur Horston) is a vampire, who Steve notices from a picture in a book he's read. Darren decides to steal the spider (Madam Octa) and Larten Crepsley tracks him down. Whilst Madam Octa is in possession of Darren Shan, Madam Octa bites Steve. The only way for Steve to get cured is if Darren agrees to become a Vampire and Larten gives him the antidote. Darren agrees to be a vampire and they become Vampire Master and Vampire Assistant.

Book 2

Darren travels to the Freak Show, (Cirque Du Freak) where this whole trauma of Darrens life started. Darren becomes a performer and friends of alot of the actors. Darren shares a room with the snake boy ( A performer at the cirque). The snake boys name is Evra Von. Evra Von and Darren Shan become very good friends and meet another boy, called Sam Grest. Sam Grest wants to become a performer at the Cirque but he is not allowed, as the Cirque owner, Hibernius Tall does not want him to join. Sam Grest,Evra Von and Darren Shan meet a "hippie" known as RV or Reggie Veggie. RV has dedicated his life to stopping the killing of trees and animals and is not happy with the enclosure of the "Wolf Man" a Half wolf,half man wild beast who is a performer at the cirque. RV free's the Wolf Man when a show is on, and the Wolf Man kills Sam Grest aswell as biting off both of RV's hands. Darren Shan must drink Sam Grest's blood to keep Sam's spirit alive. Darren drinks his blood and becomes a full vampire.

Book 3

A Vampire General, the 2nd highest rank of Vampirism, Gavner Purl comes to visit Larten. Gavner gives Larten terrible news and Larten must leave the Cirque with Darren. Darren does not want to leave on his own, so Darren and Larten convince Mr.Tall to let Evra come with them. The three of them travel to Larten's birth town where a lot of people have been killed under Vampire circumstances and Larten investigates. Evra and Darren think that Larten is the one who has been killing all of these people and decide to track down his every movement. Darren meets a young girl called Debbie, Darren starts to get feelings for Debbie and is upset that the fact he can never get into a relationship with a human. Larten,Evra and Darren find out that the killings have been done by the Vampire's blood-cousins, the Vampanese. The Vampanese who has been killing all of the humans is called Murlough. Murlough kidnaps Evra and will trade Evra's life for Lartens. Darren refuses and gets kidnapped by Murlough. Murlough wants to trade Evra's life for Debbie's. Darren agrees and leads Murlough to Debbies house where Larten has laid a trap and kills Murlough.

 Book 4

 Larten Crepsley tells Darren that they must soon make the long trek to the Vampire Council. A place where all the Vampires meet once every 12 years to catch up and deal with anything that has happened over the 12 years. As they're about to leave, Desmond Tiny insists that Larten and Darren must take 2 little people with them. Little people are Desmond Tiny's slaves. On the way to the Vampire Mountain(Where the Council will be held) Larten and Darren meet up with Gavner Purl.The group stumbles across a destroyed way station, in which they find a slaughtered vampire, still in his coffin. They do not know whether the killer is a vampaneze or just a human vampire hunter, but they continue with great care.After another week or so of traveling, a gigantic bear confronts Darren. With help from the wolves, but ultimately the Little People, the bear is defeated, but not without casualty. Lefty is fine, but his companion, the other Little Person, is crushed by the bear and dies. At the end of this conflict, Lefty lifts up his mask and speaks for the first time: “Name…not Lefty. Name…Harkat…Harkat Mulds." The talking Little Person is a huge surprise as a Little Person has never spoke before, for all of the thousands of years they've been known for. Harkat has a message from Mr.Tiny(Desmond Tiny) for the 4 Vampire Princes. The message is "The night of the Vampenese Lord is at hand". Darren and Gavner are baffled by this message, but Larten knows what it means. Trouble.Once in the Halls, Mr. Crepsly reunites with a very good friend of his, and his old mentor, Seba Nile, the second oldest living vampire, and quartermaster for the Halls of Vampire Mountain. After a good night’s rest, Harkat was brought before the Princes and immediately, word spread of his message, causing uproar. Soon, Darren meets another character of a vampire: Kurda Smahlt. He is going to be made a prince, and takes a far liberal view on the vampaneze issues. He believes in settling differences and reuniting the clans before the split becomes too great and war breaks out. Because of this, he is not as fond of the vampiric tradition of pride and strength as others.Later on, while on a tour of the Halls with Kurda, Darren encounters the Hall of Death, where vampires who are too old, sick, evil or insane, are killed. It consists of a pit of stakes below a big cage on a pulley. The vampire would be dropped from a high height in the cage and impaled to death upon the stakes below.After visiting such a depressing room, Darren is relieved to visit the Halls of Sport, a place for athletic games and sports for vampires. Darren meets Vanez Blane, the gamekeeper of Vampire Mountain and personal trainer in combat. He also meets one of the few vampiresses of the clan: Arra Sails, a hard-hearted warrior. Upon greeting, she only shakes hands of those she respects, excluding those such as Kurda, for his pacifistic ways.Arra’s specialty sport is one played on the bars. A type of staff is used to try and knock one’s opponents off of thin planks, which run in a grid pattern over a small area. She has not been defeated for eleven years, and so when Darren is offered the opportunity to fight her, he’s a little apprehensive, but under some cajoling from Vanez, agrees to give it a shot. He almost beats her too, making it a very close and fair fight. In the end, Darren earns Arra’s respect and her handshake, making it a personal victory for him.Within the week, Darren and Mr. Crepsly are called to the Hall of Princes for their meeting with the three Princes attending the current Council (one always skips “in case something should happen”). The Princes’ thrones lie inside of a magical impenetrable dome, a gift from Mr. Tiny seven hundred years ago. Along with the dome, he gifted to the vampire clan the “Stone of Blood,” which, among other uses, can track any vampire anywhere. The biggest power that the Stone holds, however, is the ability to revive the vampire clan if and when the Vampaneze Lord arises and kills all of the vampires, though through unknown methods. Larten and Darren are submitted to the 3 Vampire Princes, Paris Skyle, Arrow and Mika Ver Leth. It is against the law for a Vampire to blood a child so Larten is in a lot of trouble. The 3 Vampire Princes decide to let Darren go through the Trials of Death. If Darren fails, he will be took to the Hall of Death and be impaled on the spikes until he's died.

Book 5

It is only now that Darren learns about the trials themselves. An ancient vampiric tradition, any vampire wishing to become a Vampire General had to pass five of these Trials. They range from "fighting wild boars to climbing perilous mountains to crawling through a pit filled with snakes."There is allowed only one day of rest and one day of preparation between each trial, but Darren's timing is lucky, as a festival will fall right in the middle of his trials, meaning that they will have to be put on hold and he will have more time to rest.Darren reports to the Hall of Princes and is presented with his first Trial: The Aquatic Maze. This maze is composed of a stone labyrinth with a low ceiling and only four exits. Only two catches: first, a rock of half the weight of the participant has to be tied around his or her ankle. The second condition is that, from the time the Trial starts, water is continually pumped into the maze, filling it in exactly seventeen minutes. The vampire is led to the middle of the maze and the timer is started. To get out, he or she must navigate through the tunnels to one of the exits, carrying the rock, while the maze is filling with water.Vanez Blane, the Vampire Mountain gamekeeper, leads Darren in preparing for his trials. He teaches Darren to make a mental map of the maze in his head, and most importantly - not to panic.When the day of the first trial has arrives, Darren is brought to the Hall of Princes. From there, he is taken on a stretcher to the center of the stone labyrinth. The Trial begins and Darren starts to go through what he had practiced.After a bit of struggle, and almost not making it in time, Darren reaches an exit and completes the trial, hitting the marker at the last moment of consciousness. Awaking fifteen hours later, Darren is ecstatic with his victory, but the celebration is short lived as other news reaches him.The final group vampires traveling to Vampire Mountain had arrived the night before bearing ominous news; they had found vampaneze tracks themselves, along an entirely different route. This, when matched with the first vampaneze trail that Darren's group had found on their way up, make for a very dark sign which cannot be coincidence.But Darren's Trials cannot be forgotten and so he again appears before the Princes. His second Trial is thus drawn: The Path of Needles, which is supposedly easier than the first.The Path of Needles consists of a deep tunnel, sometimes tall but more often cramped, covered completely on the bottom and top with spikes: stalactites and stalagmites, each sharp as a needle. Darren must pass through this cave and emerge alive at the other end; that's all!The Trials turns out to be trickier than it seems at first, but still easier than the maze. The stalagmites are very slippery and cannot trusted for a grip. Also, stalactites may fall from the ceiling if disturbed, meaning that silence and stealth are necessary. But after more training, this time with Arra Sails and Vanez, Darren is ready to take on the Trial.Dealing with the vampaneze crisis, no Princes are able to preside over the Trial, but Darren continues anyway, and after only one near-death, he emerges at the other end of the cave tunnel with nothing too dire occurring. Two trials down.Just as expected, the Festival of the Undead arrives, putting a halt to any and all official business, including Darren's trials. He takes this opportunity to rest and have fun, as do all of the other vampires. The most notable event is the match on the bars (as mentioned in book IV) between none other than Kurda Smahlt, the pacifist, and Arra Sails, one of the more skilled vampires in the mountain. After being roped into competing against her, Kurda actually beats the vampiress at her own game and sends her down to her first defeat in eleven years.Darren breaks away from the fun to find Seba Nile, the quartermaster of the mountain who said that he had something to help Darren's itching from the Path of Needles. Seba takes Darren, along with Kurda and Gavner Purl, down into the tunnels of the mountain. Kurda comes along because he has been making the first ever map set of the tunnels under Vampire Mountain, and takes every opportunity to go down.The four vampires arrive in a glowing cavern, lit by special moss. Living in this cavern crawl hundred of thousands of spiders, each yellow and furry. Their spider webs, as Seba demonstrates, have a major healing effect, especially against itching, but the quartermaster asks for the group's confidence so the caverns do not become overrun and the spiders driven out. The webs work very well for Darren, and his itching ceases dramatically.While down in the tunnels, Darren asks to visit some of the other areas he has heard about. The group thus visits the Hall of Final Voyage, which is composed of a big room with a big stream in the middle of it. It is, or was, used for sending off dead bodies in a funeral ceremony, but is rarely in use now, due to inconveniences brought about by the tunnels.Kurda now explains to Darren about how they get so much blood for the mountain, as well as what happens to dead vampires' bodies. The Guardians of the Blood live in Vampire Mountain as well, though unnoticed and separate from the vampire clan. They have their own culture, including customs and language, and by nature are saprotroughs. Kurda explains that a saprotrough is anything that feeds on the waste or bodies of dead organisms. The Guardians of the Blood are given all of the dead vampires' organs to eat, and in return, give their blood to be drunk by the living vampires. Though this seems morally objectionable to Darren, Seba insists that they are a peaceful culture, mean no harm, and are in fact vital to the vampire's society.The Festival of the Undead eventually ends and Darren's next trial is drawn: The Hall of Flames. This is recognized as one of the hardest trials in the set, and so Vanez will have to have Arra help him teach Darren how to survive. The Hall itself is an enclosed room with pipes opening up to the floor, ceiling and all four walls. These pipes are controlled by outside vampires during the Trial, who pump flames into the room at random intervals, becoming more frequent over time. To pass the Trial, he must survive for fifteen minutes.With little time for preparation, Darren is soon thrust into his trial. Having to dip and dodge around the flames, he becomes badly burned and almost unconscious, but makes it through the fifteen minutes alive. Darren drifts in and out of consciousness, alternating between nightmares of fire and delirious reality. Finally, he wakes up and comes to his senses.Immediately upon awaking, Darren must appear before the Princes for his next Trial. Kurda says that he has a plan to buy time, but Darren must pretend to be all right. Darren does so, and picks the Blooded Boars. The Princes now "realize" that none of them can attend the Trial, being too busy. Having already missed one of Darren's Trials, they are made to postpone the Blooded Boars Trial three days until a Prince can attend.Darren's extra time is spent resting. He must heal, at least partially, from his burns and wounds from the Hall of Flames, and because no practice is needed for the coming Trial, it is best that he stay in bed. The Blooded Boars is held in an arena, like a coliseum, with the Trial taker in the middle, paired with two boars infected with vampire blood, driving them insane. The combatant must simply kill the two boars by himself to complete the Trial.The day of the fourth Trial arrives and Darren is led into the center ring of the arena. The battle commences and Darren, armed only with a club and a spear, faces off against the boars. They battle back and forth, advancing and retreating, until Darren manages to blind one. Unfortunately, it topples onto him, leaving him an easy target for the second boar, which begins to charge at Darren.At the last moment, a blurred figure rushes from the stands and fights off the oncoming boar. The boar is shoved back and its head bashed in. It is only after the animal is dead that the figure appears as the Little Person, Harkat Mulds. Pandemonium breaks loose in the cavern as vampires shout for judgment; Darren and Harkat have broken the rules! Mika, the Prince presiding over the Trial, calls for order and dismisses everybody so that he and the other Princes may give a verdict later.Waiting in his room for the verdict to reach him, Darren is miserable. Kurda comes to visit, and reasons with Darren, eventually convincing him to go against vampiric traditions of pride and to attempt an escape. Kurda takes Darren down into secret tunnels under the mountain, and Gavner, who followed their trail and wanted to help them, joins them. They come to a pass, and after a disagreement over which path is best to escape the mountain, Gavner's way is chosen and Kurda becomes uneasy. As they file into the next passage, Gavner hears a cough. He investigates and finds that the next cavern over has twenty or thirty of the red-faced vampaneze hiding there!The three vampires, unnoticed by their red counterparts, make a break for the surface to report what they have seen, but Gavner and Kurda lag behind, anticipating a fight. Darren is told to continue forward, but turns back to find that Gavner and Kurda are locked in an engagement with the vampaneze. Darren continues to watch the pair fighting as Kurda makes a fatal stab, right into the chest of Gavner Purl!Darren continues to watch as Gavner collapses and the other combatants cease their charade. Kurda notices Darren and tries to calm him, but to no avail. Darren soon begins running away, sprinting as fast as his wounded legs can take him, up tunnels and winding around until he reaches the Hall of Final Voyage. Darren tries to jump across the wide stream to the other side, but doesn't quite make it, due to his injuries. He is only able to keep hold on a rock to avoid falling down the rushing stream. Kurda makes the jump without any problems, and offers Darren a hand up, still trying to convince Darren of his innocence. Darren turns his nose up at Kurda, a traitor, and instead lets go and submits himself to the cold current of the stream.

Book 6

 As Darren glides away into the stream, he thinks death is awaiting him. With the luck of the vampires, he lives. With all the damage to his legs and arms he struggles to break free of the current, but he finds a deep strength inside himself and gets away free. But that's the last thing on his mind, the first thing is the safety of the clan. The danger of the Vampaneze hidden in the caves of Vampire Mountain. Darren washes up in a lot of snow, and must trek forward to Vampire Mountain. Darren is about to give up when the young wolf cub, Rudi comes and supports him. They carry on the trek together, until the elderly wolf, Streak comes and helps them. Darren becomes part of the wolf family and heals himself. Darren starts hunting with the wolves, and one night when he's hunting. He finds a search team, being lead by Larten Crepsley, to find Darren. Darren wants to jump out and show he's alive, and tell everybody about Kurda but Streak stops him. Darren wonders why Streak stopped him but it all becomes clear when Darren sees the Vampire traitor,Kurda Smahlt.Darren realizes what Kurda must be planning. Once he becomes a Prince, not only will others have to obey him, but he will also have access to the Stone of Blood and could overthrow the entire clan. Darren now tells the wolves of his intention to leave for Vampire Mountain. Streak introduces Darren to a she-wolf, whom he names Magda, who knows not only how to get to Vampire Mountain, but also how to enter it. Magda, Darren, Streak and a couple other wolves begin the journey, reaching the base of mountain without too much trouble, though Magda is close to death. They begin the ascent and along the way reach a cavern where the wolves start barking. A Guardian of the Blood signals that they should stop and hides Darren as vampaneze pass through the room.After they pass, Darren hurries the wolves and they begin to make their way to the Halls themselves. Magda stops and lies down to die. Darren tries to rouse her, but she is intent that she is finished. Making one last motion to a tunnel up ahead, she closes her eyes and drifts off. Darren and the rest of the group climb up the last tunnel and into a small cavern. Darren peeks through one side of the wall, easy enough to smash through, to find that he is directly outside of the Hall of Princes. This is a shock, as there is supposed to be only one way into the Hall.Darren decides that he must confide his secret into another Vampire, before making his entrance to the Princes, but there's a lot of Vampires to choose from;

• Larten Crepsley: Although he's Darren's mentor, he would give Darren up to the princes, and let Darren be executed as that's the way of the Vampires. 

• Arra Sails: Arra would believe Darren's story, but even if she did stand up in the Hall of Princes, she isn't respected enough to have her opinion influence that of the Princes. 

• Seba Nile: Seba would believe Darren's story, and probably stand up for Darren in the Hall of Princes. As Seba's the 2nd highest ranked Vampire, except from Vampire Princes. Darren decides to confide his secret in Seba.

Darren finds Seba and tells him his story, Seba agrees to help Darren. It's the time of the traitor,Kurda's investiture to become a Vampire Prince.Darren breaks through the thin wall, and halts the ceremony loudly screaming, "STOP!" The Princes, along with the rest of the clan, are ready to write him off and not listen to what he has to say, but when Seba speaks up for Darren, and tells the Princes that they should listen, they do.Darren tells his story: how Kurda killed Gavner Purl after leading the vampaneze to the Mountain, along with his own theory about seizing control of the Stone of Blood. The Princes believe him, and Kurda does not deny any of these accusations. All of the vampires, except for Darren, the Princes, Seba, Arra and Mr. Crepsley are sent from the Hall of Princes, as they formulate a plan to kill their vampaneze visitors.Darren makes a plan to kill all of the Vampaneze, and his plan works. Yet their friend, Arra Sails dies, and Vanez becomes fully blind.Kurda's motives are questioned, and he explains how the Vampaneze Lord has been found and, though not yet blooded, will lead the vampaneze to war with the vampires and win. Kurda's was a preemptive, less painful attempt to unite the two clans of the night, and though by force, would result in fewer casualties.He also tells the clan of the Coffin of Fire, which revealed the Vampaneze Lord to his clan. It is a coffin in which anyone can lay, though when the lid closes, a fire will rush through it and only the Vampaneze Lord can exit it unscathed and alive. This person has been found and is with the vampaneze.After he says his share, Kurda is, as expected, sent to the Hall of Death for execution, though the rest of the clan now understands him, and his intentions are known to have been good. The time of Darren's trial arrives,and the Princes are in no mood to break the Vampiric law. The Princes decide to make Darren a Vampire Prince, for his loyalty to the Clan, and Darren escapes the Death Penalty.