I was not overly enamored by either, though for me the prologue went down a bit more smoothly than the chapter.
The opening line of the prologue invites the question "why" but instead there is a description of things going on around the character. The second paragraph could have done with some adjective-pruning. Other than that, interesting enough to keep going.
In the first chapter I stumbled in the second paragraph here: "I was tending to a twelve-year-old girl with a broken arm—courtesy of her scumbag father—when he “slipped,” jaw-smack against the edge of a gurney." Who is "he"? The father? It is clear later, but not before. Backtracking isn't always a bad thing for the reader, but its better to be clear most of the time.
After that it was the multiplication of improbability that bothered me. You can't hit a person and know for certain you'll impart short-term amnesia. You can't even be sure you'll knock them out. A medical professional hitting somebody in a hospital setting is also difficult to swallow.
All that said, I'd have kept reading. I rarely give up on a book in the first page or chapter, though it has been known to happen after chapter three or so.
I was not overly enamored by either, though for me the prologue went down a bit more smoothly than the chapter.
The opening line of the prologue invites the question "why" but instead there is a description of things going on around the character. The second paragraph could have done with some adjective-pruning. Other than that, interesting enough to keep going.
In the first chapter I stumbled in the second paragraph here: "I was tending to a twelve-year-old girl with a broken arm—courtesy of her scumbag father—when he “slipped,” jaw-smack against the edge of a gurney." Who is "he"? The father? It is clear later, but not before. Backtracking isn't always a bad thing for the reader, but its better to be clear most of the time.
After that it was the multiplication of improbability that bothered me. You can't hit a person and know for certain you'll impart short-term amnesia. You can't even be sure you'll knock them out. A medical professional hitting somebody in a hospital setting is also difficult to swallow.
All that said, I'd have kept reading. I rarely give up on a book in the first page or chapter, though it has been known to happen after chapter three or so.
Best of luck with your writing.
--John