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After binge-watching HBO's hit show and tearing through five long books, fans of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series received a happy surprise this morning, as publisher Tor released a preview and excerpt of Martin's new 35,000-word novella from the A Song of Ice and Fire universe.

The piece, titled "The Princess and The Queen, or, The Blacks and The Greens," covers The Dance of the Dragons, a massive civil war from 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, back when the Targaryens ruled all of Westeros. In this sense, it follows the style of Martin's three Dunk and Egg novellas, which are already favorites of Thrones wonks.

The faux-historical story means that none of the books' or TV show's main favorite characters are present. As such, the story likely won't appeal to TV-only fans of Thrones — and there are plenty, as it's HBO's most popular show since The Sopranos — but for fans of the books, it's a welcome reprieve from the torturously long periods between books. However, part of the reason for those extensive breaks between books is that Martin (left) spends part of his time writing these novellas, and as The Atlantic Wire reported last week, HBO executives said recently they would rather Martin concentrate on finishing the main series so that the show doesn't run out of material.