Neal Stephenson: Polostan

For the past year or two I've been on a bit of a Neal Stephenson kick. He's a scifi author who is particularly legendary in my tribe of people (techie software developer types). After enjoying my time with Snow Crash, Seveneves, and Fall, I was immediately interested when I found out about his new historical fiction spy novel.

I hated it. This book is insultingly boring. Made it about 50% of the way through before stopping. I guess I'll never know if it all comes together in the end.

How do you know when to pull a plug on a book? I'd love more discussion about when and how to know if you've given a book a fair chance before moving on.