Stop waiting for George R.R. Martin’s Winds of Winter. Read his debut sci-fi book instead.

Instead of playing the fruitless will-he-won’t-he games online, here’s a better use of your time. Between episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — a satisfying, small-scale show that Game of Thrones fans (or Martin fans in general) shouldn’t miss — just read one of his pre-Game of Thrones novels, which are all self-contained and complete, no sequels necessary. In particular, my favorite book of his has always been his 1977 debut novel, Dying of the Light, a swooning, admirably nasty science fiction story that contains just about everything fans admire about Game of Thrones, apart from the dragons.