Night Watch 
by Sergei Lukyanenko
After reading Anne Rice's Interview With a Vampire I had little desire to read vampire books and ones that dealt with similar creatures like shape shifters, and magicians. However the reviews were too good for Lukyanenko's Night Watch. Not only is this an excellent, well written book, I look forward to the rest of the series. I plan on downloading Day Watch later today. I highly recommend this book which is really three novellas following the low-level magician Anton.