Does Boulle bear comparison with Jules Verne? I think Verne would reject it, mainly because POTA belongs an older genre of writing - the imaginary voyage, to which books such as Gulliver's Travels belong - and is not especially concerned with the hardness of its science. Like Lemuel Gulliver, Ulysse Merou who narrates this book is a very ordinary man (ordinary really means quite stupid), and so the story takes on some of the qualities of a moral tale.
In the land of the Houynhnhnms there is racism between breeds of horse and on the planet Soror the apes are divided into classes based on species. On earth man is destroying the planet and the other species, on Soror man has destroyed the planet and been superceded by apes he had trained as workers.
On the other hand, would you know you were reading a fable? Almost certainly not. You want to know how Merou escapes and what he finds. You'll be surprised.