[Nik]

I used to worry when a book had a prologue, because it suggested the main tale might take a long, long time to get going.

Then films and TV shows began to have prologues-- Um, think 'James Bond' movie for classic flash-fiction mini-tale before main intro rolls. IIRC, current examples of this art are 'CSI' episodes...

IMHO, many mid-series books use (or need ;- ) a prologue to save a lot of tedious flash-backs-- As you know, Bob !!

IMHO, even for a stand-alone story, a prologue can be very useful. You expect less depth from a short tale, it can set broad outlines of character, mood and period in a few terse words. And, perhaps most important, a reader knows a prologue will be mercifully short, so is more likely to read it through...

On a writing site I used to frequent, the moderator would post 'openings' with the question, 'Would you buy this book ?'

Despite middle-aged eyes I'm still a fast reader, so the paragraph or two would generally go in a glance. Sometimes even those few lines would make me edge away. Usually, my reply was, 'Insufficient'. But, where do you end such an excerpt ? Perhaps a prologue can fill that role, too ??