[PrinzMegaherz]

Song of Ice and fire is great, but I am not a fan of such long stories.
I would prefer:

The Night Watch from Sergej Lukyanenko

It's a perfect blend of fantasy (magic, vampires usw.) brought into our time. It's from a russian author and creates some kind of magic cold war:

In the world of the night watch, there are humans and others. Others are former humans that learned to use magic in one way or the other. However, becoming an other means you have to choose whether to serve the light or the darkness. After both sides nearly annihilated each other, a truce was settled limiting the amoung of good and evil both sides are allowed to do. Both sides have police force that makes sure the other side does not cheat - the night- and daywatch. It's a story about a cold war between those two factions and a detective story about Anton, a young nightwatch member.