Book Challenge -- Day 8

8. Best prologues

The Hobbit is a prologue of epic proportions--a whole novel telling setting up the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I enjoyed the Trilogy and The Hobbit, and now that I'm working on The Samarillion I appreciate The Hobbit even more.
     If I had jumped right into Hamlet I'm sure I would not have understood what was going on. That Shakespeare's plays all have a brief overview in the prologue helps when the story begins to twist and turn.
     The Challenge asks for five prologues, but most books I'm reading lately don't have prologues. Occasionally a "Chapter 0.1" (the best way to describe some prologues) shows a scene from between books and I've read several that do enrich the story--Entwined, Nobody's Princess, and Short-Straw Bride are some examples. It seems the recent trend is to jump straight into the exposition and set-up. Depending on the story this works, but there is something to be said for a good prologue.