> For a lot of fiction books, my rule is to read the first 50 pages. If I'm not engaged, move on. Life is short.

Just encountered myself doing this. I was reading John Birmingham's Axis of Time books. The first three sucked me in and I devoured them in a day or two apiece. Starting the fourth...something was off. The writing felt stilted, like the author was trying to cram in too many pop culture references or something. I put it down and have given it two more tries since with the same result, so now I'm done.

I'm sad, because I was really looking forwards to having several more books in the series.