Following the massive success of the Demonata series, Darren Shan is back where it all started - telling the life story of the vampire Larten Crepsley. Spanning centuries and continents, taking in sea voyages, murder, war and love, this is the epic, bloodsoaked tale of a vampire who started out a nobody. . . and ended up changing the world forever.
When Larten escapes the terrible workhouse in which he toils, he doesn't know that he is running from an early death. . . into another kind of transformation. After meeting the mysterious vampire Seba Nile while sheltering for the night in a crypt, Larten finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of the vampire Clan. As he travels and learns, Larten finds himself enjoying the adventure he has always dreamed of, seeing a world beyond any he suspected in his poverty-stricken youth.
But Larten begins to discover something else, too. Much like death, becoming a vampire is something you can't come back from. . .