He might like George's Secret key to the universe (and sequels) which are collaborative books by Lucy and Stephen Hawking. They are fiction and science integrated. More like science with a story to move it along.
I also agree with the read to him idea. You can take turns where you read a page or two and he reads to you a page or two or read the whole thing. I was always able to draw my younger son in by reading to him at night. (Two exceptions...Narnia series and Freddy goes to FL...he just didn't like them at all in first or second grade. He never went back to Freddy but his 4th grade teacher got him hooked on Narnia).
One thing I found would happen is that if I got him hooked sometimes he would finish it on his own on the sly.
But reading to him will show him how you can read two or three chapters and then set it aside. When you pick it up the next night you can model remembering what big events happened first, second, next and if you need to read the last paragraph from the night before to get yourself back "up to speed". Sometimes my husband would fill in for me one night, the next night my son had to tell me what I missed...sneaky way to teach him summarizing.
Read aloud time I taught my kids how to skim. One of mine would have a crying fit if his bookmark fell out so I taught him how to estimate where he thought he was and to read the first paragraph of each chapter until he found his place. No more crying and moaning if he lost his place because I had modeled it for him.
