Jules Verne 
Five Weeks in a Balloon 

"Five Weeks in a Ballon" is the first Verne novel in which he perfected the "ingredients" of his later work, skilfully mixing a plot full of adventure and twists that hold the reader’s interest with passages of technical, geographic, and historic description. The book gives readers a glimpse of the exploration of Africa, which was still not completely known to Europeans of the time, with explorers traveling all over the continent in search of its secrets.