A bunch of us readers are sharing the first lines of a book and we all link up at the Linky at A Few More Pages, take a trip over there to see the beginnings of other books. Everyone is welcome to join us.

I’ve decided to read at least 52 short stories this year. So far I’ve been slacking a bit, but now I’ve started reading a short story collection, so hopefully my numbers will improve soon.

The beginning here is from the first short story in The Nebula Awards Showcase 2011 edited by Kevin J. Anderson.  The author of the story is Saladin Ahmed and it’s called “Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela”. It was first published in Clockwork Phoenix 2, edited by Mike Allen.

As soon as I arrived in the village of Beit Zujaaj I begin to hear the mutters about Abdel Jameela, a strange old man supposedly unconnected to any of the local families.

And there are indeed strange things going on with Abdel Jameela…

I’m about 3 stories into the book, and so far it’s a very good collection of short stories.