Glory Road! By Heinlen.
Nothing fancy: Just sword-and-soccery and sex-and-drink and rock and roll and hell-fighting before it became popular.
And with a small dose of Starship Troopers social commentary addded.
Yes, Jules Verne is very readable. I have read several of his novels and also several of H.G. Wells’.
Wells had some great ideas but he is tough reading. Maybe whoever translated Verne was just good.
My dad used to tout 20k when I was kid, so one year at the shore I took a crack at it, with a hard cover copy I picked up for 10 cents or something ... Oh brother! I was chugging through it, but I got to one passage where Arronax is detailing at length the various fish species visible at a viewport, and I consciously gave up at that point. I finally read it, as an adult, and although I count myself as a fan, the writing is not without fault.
Read ALL Michael Crighton books!