With Twilight, the Sookie Stackhouse novels, and a number of other recent dabblings into the world of the undead, it's a wonder that there is the need for another vampire saga. But what if this novel has the potential to be the most fresh and frightening? While Twilight veers the romantic route and the Sookie Stackhouse novels take on vampires as political and social allegory, Chuck Hogan and Guillermo del Toro have concocted something ancient, scientific and terrifying to add to the lexicon. The Strain is the first of a new trilogy for readers to sink their teeth into; and it promises to give a ferocious bite back.