I was in the same group when I wanted to try Mercury (another Prolog-like language, but with ML-like types). Someone on Mercury's mailing list took pity on me,

I was in the same group when I wanted to try Mercury (another Prolog-like language, but with ML-like types). Someone on Mercury's mailing list took pity on me, and told me to just straight up try some Prolog. Prolog, at least the basics, isn't hard at all, and it takes maybe a day to get you to write something that works. Of course, every language has its inconsistencies, dark corners and unexpected turns, and, sometimes some very deep and general pieces of wisdom that aren't on the surface. But, really, if you want to understand any Prolog derivative, the best way I can think about, is to learn some Prolog. It's the most efficient way to the goal. It doesn't really take long.