Simmons' style clean and to the point, the stories collected in Prayers to Broken Stones offer readers of horror and science fiction bite-sized morsels to chew over. Several of the stories (three—three-and-a-half, in fact) would later be developed into novels. And while the majority are horror, and this reviewer largely bounces off horror, he at least recognizes the quality manner in which Simmons goes about delivering story.
Perhaps the best story in the collection kicks things off: “The River Styx Runs Upstream”. It tells of a boy whose mother dies. A strange group called The Resurrectionists revive her corpse and return a silent, dead-eyed woman to his family. Doom tolling subtly in the background, things steadily spiral downward for the boy and his family in the aftermath of their mother's revival. And that, as Freud is want to think, has to eventually have an effect on the children... Overall, the story is an excellent mood piece which does keep the reader glued to the page but without much substance.
Later developed into the novel Hollow Man, “Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams” is the story of a man who shares a telepathic bond with his wife. In the opening pages, she passes away of a terminal illness, leaving the man alone both physically and mentally. Sinking into depravity, he eventually finds himself at the lowest of lows, and makes a decision that does not have the intended consequences. Packing a tight punch for the briskness in which the concepts are developed and resolved, the short story is better than the novel.
Third story in the collection is “Vanni Fucci Is Alive and Well and Living in Hell”. About a rich, manipulative televangelist (are there any other types?), the story opens as he prepares for the day's television guests. But something happens, and one of his guests is replaced by the mysterious Vanni Fucci. Literally and figuratively, all hell breaks loose as Fucci comes on stage. Simmons' symbolism is nice in this story, but likewise quite overt. I assume it felt good to write. Another story working with religion, “Vexed to Nightmare by a Rocking Cradle” tells of a post-apocalytic, religious militant Santa Claus who, in visiting one of his religion's flooded outposts, is tasked with delivering a Christmas present. And what does a militant Christian give? You know, but you don't know.
A seed of what would become the novel Hyperion, “Remembering Siri” is a story about a man sent to a far flung planet to build an instant-travel device connecting it to the remainder of humanity. Meeting a woman named Siri, he falls in love, a doomed love. Time dilation being what it is, every time the man visits she gets older and older while he stays relatively the same age, and eventually she passes away. With the politics of the instant-travel device playing a role, social unrest ensues Siri’s death. This is a case where the novel rendition is better. Understanding of the wider Hyperion world provides a context which makes the man's story more impactful. Well-written as it stands, but at some loose ends without a larger world.
The next two selections in the collection are variations on the same idea: “Metastasis” is the short story and “The Offering” is the television script adaptation. Unabashed horror, Simmons parallels the nightmare of terminal cancer with monsters, disgusting worm-oozing monsters. Readers' mileage will vary on these given how obvious the horror metaphors are and their enjoyment of the macabre.
A bit of Westworld with PTSD, “E-Ticket to 'Namland” tells of an adult Disney-esque theme park where people go to experience the Vietnam War. For some park goers, however, the experience is all too realistic. Simmons' story is solid, but having read Lucius Shepard's “Salvador” and “R&R”, it pales in comparison. “Iverson's Pits” is likely the most awkward if not forced story in the collection. Rather clumsily it shifts a modern day boy into the horrors of the Civil War, specifically the Battle for Gettysburg. A minor, inter-character drama playing out on the battlefield, the story feels more like an excuse to utilize knowledge of the battle than tell a story—the hand was made to fit the glove rather than vice versa. (For a more sophisticated Civil War novella with elements of fantastika see Kristin Kathryn Rusch's “The Gallery of His Dreams”.)
Another story that would later feed into the novel Hyperion, at least halfway, is “Death of the Centaur”. Framed by a teacher telling stories to his students (as Simmons did in real life), it tells of a centaur named Raul who is trapped in a fantastical world and cannot escape. He searches for the key to his world's instant travel portal so he can reconnect to the rest of his people, but hampering his efforts are lizard-like wizards who want to rule everything, forcing Raul into the most dangerous of choices to escape. While individual elements of this story would eventually find themselves into the Hyperion Cantos, it is mostly disconnected, and best read as described: a fantastical story a teacher tells his students, with all of the charm and innocence of lizard-wizards, centaurs, and sorcerer apes. Fun but forgettable.
Closing the collection is the last story to be developed into a novel, “Carrion Comfort”. Essentially spy games with mind control, it tells of a group of malevolent psychics who are fighting a secret war with another group of malevolent psychics for world domination. Their mind control called The Ability, it is used to physically control people, even other people who have The Ability. Tension in the story comes when a group of investigators (without The Ability) come to know of the secret war and try to put a stop to it before the whole world comes crashing down. Readers of David Mitchell's The Bone Clocks may appreciate this story given the parallels.
In the end, Prayers for Broken Stones is a collection that will likely appeal to horror fans more than anybody. The majority of the stories feature relevant devices, e.g. monsters, the undead, mind control, hellscapes, and other typical horror devices. For fans of Simmons' Hyperion Cantos, there are two stories that are formative content, i.e. they do not extend the Hyperion story, rather act as rough outlines that would later be fleshed out. The novels are better. Otherwise, the only thing to recommend this collection are Simmons' style and manner of building mood, attributes which would see him become the success that he is in the decades since.
The following are the thirteen stories collected in Prayers for Broken Stones:
The River Styx Runs Upstream
Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams
Vanni Fucci Is Alive and Well and Living in Hell
Vexed to Nightmare by a Rocking Cradle
Remembering Siri
Metastasis
The Offering
E-Ticket to 'Namland
Iverson's Pits
Shave and a Haircut, Two Bites
The Death of the Centaur
Two Minutes Forty-Five Seconds
Carrion Comfort
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