Pale Grey Idol, issue zero, edited by Michael Kelly

This is issue zero of a new magazine, to debut with issue one in early 2027. A slim paperback of 97 pages, it contains six stories-- "Strange Stories of the Ineffable" as the subtitle describes them. The opening short story, "Flume" by Sean Padraic Birnie, tells of a teen who forces his younger brother down a waterslide that disappears with his brother. Another, "Stillness" by Ben Tufnell, tells of a man caught in an old mantrap in the forest; as he bleeds out, he realizes how he got there. In the third, "Folly" by K. Wallace King, a woman visits a person claiming to be a friend whom she hasn't seen in forty years. The fourth tale, "The Philosopher's Skeleton" by Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, reads like a macabre parable that eludes sense. This sixth, "Floodlands" by Steve Toase, tells of a man who returns to a mysterious place of his youth, now decayed to the very core.These five stories are well-written, but impressionistic and elusive, barely using any plot, which limits their…