Prince of Fools (The Red Queen's War, #1)

by Mark Lawrence

and accordingly I would gladly have ignored the common views on what cousins should and shouldn’t get up to.

Uhhhhh you what now

Saved by a dancing girl on a female elephant. I wouldn’t be adding that to the tale of the hero of Aral Pass.

Idk i think its a fun addition

It’s not until you’ve seen a red gaping wound and all the complex little bits inside a man all broken up and sliced open, and known that they weren’t ever getting back together again, and vomited your last two meals over the rocks . . . it’s not until then that you understand the business of swords properly

It’s often said that cowards make the best torturers. Cowards have good imaginations, imaginations that torment them with all the worst stuff of nightmare, all the horrors that could befall them.

“Better a long ignoble life of shallow pleasures than a short stab at heroism, ending with a short stab.

“Men who’ve made choices always feel they own their destiny. Few ever think to ask who shaped and offered up those choices. Who dangles the carrot they think they’ve chosen to follow.”

Ours is called Ikea, after the dragon, you know?”

We rowed in the last quarter mile, sail down. I say “we.” I provided moral support.

I found the women with the most freedom to act were by far the most fun to be around.

The wind and the cold of the Uplands are things that must be experienced; words will not tame them into something that can be given over.