George R. R. Martin's third in his A Song of Ice and Fire series is just as compelling as the first two.
A Storm of Swords is so vast that I do start getting lost in all the characters. The appendix helps.
My quotes:
Page 83: "I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off." (Lady Olenna)
Page 84: "All these kings would do a deal better if they would put down their swords and listen to their mothers." (Lady Olenna again!)
Page 290: Jaime could not have said how long he pressed the attack. It might have been minutes or it might have been hours; time slept when swords woke.
Page 387: Old stories are like old friends, she used to say. You have to visit them from time to time.
Page 756: All that had happened hundreds and thousands of years ago, to be sure, and some maybe never happened at all. Maester Luwin always said that Old Nan's stories shouldn't be swallowed whole.
Page 947: Half a mile north, the wildling encampments were stirring, their campfires sending up smoky fingers to scratch against the pale dawn sky.
