Skip everything on your list and go read Roadside Picnic, a sci-fi novel about a mysterious wasteland left behind by an unknown influence, and the men who explore it. Closest parallel of the setting would be to the STALKER games, which are very loosely based on it, but the book was written before Chernobyl happened and is frankly better off for it. I also recommend everything else by the Strugatsky brothers you can find, though some of their best stuff was never translated.