Only once has an SF story captivated me so much that I went on eBay and bought the magazine it originally appeared in.

What surprised me (and perhaps shouldn’t have) is the illustrator’s inability to visualise such a strange and unique future. Heck, the illustrations are old-fashioned even for 1966: C’mell, a woman fighting for her people’s freedom and dignity apparently likes to lounge around in lingerie as she’s doing so. But, hey, it’s a piece of skiffy history and it’s one of the highlights of my bookshelf.

(It’s an ambition of mine to write the definitive Ballad Of Lost C’Mell blog post, the sort that ends up at the top of the Google search. But life and fiction get in the way. One of these days…)