I'm not sure if I've given it enough of a try, but I wanted to get into the Culture series and started with Consider Phlebas. After three (four?) chapters I changed it out for a different book; I considered "The Player of Games" instead, but the plot didn't sound exciting.
Not sure if I should give it a second chance or not. After those chapters I just didn't really care what happened next, nor did I care much for the main character.
I switched to Project Hail Mary and love it.