Dune. It’s on the longer side, and has everything you need - political intrigue, assassins, smugglers, posions, industry, battle of various types, despots, messiahs, religious fevor, drugs, sex, and giant, hulking, machine eating sandworms.

Confederacy of Dunces.

You can only get that spiderweb of connections revealed for maximum effect once.

My mother was an English teacher and she read to us every night until I was around 13. I think it made a world of a difference.

Ursula le Guin often used science reports to break up the prose and add additional context, which I think makes the story richer. Particularly in the Left Hand of Darkness - an entire chapter towards the middle is a science report on the physiology of the Gethens, and honestly it’s much needed context since their biology is so different.