The Good Man

Volumes: 1

author: Max Maximov

over 120.000 listenings of audioversion

genre: Horror

translation possible from: Russian and English

rights available: all except Bulgaria, China, Poland

The Good Man
Eksmo. Moscow 2020. 200 pages

available in full English

A weed of obviously extraterrestrial origin covers the Earth with tentacles. People near the plants are going crazy. But the plant doesn’t only penetrate the brains via, it creates terrible monsters from the living organisms it has swallowed. Unexpectedly, it turns out that only people with Down syndrome (DS) are immune to the destructive nature of the weeds. The Space Infection Institute has launched a new call to recruit volunteers to spray a weed killer into the root. Several groups have already moved towards the center of the parasite and have been able to establish a path through it with supply points in abandoned villages. None of these DS groups have been able to reach the source. Because the weeds are constantly spreading, the path to the source takes longer every day. No one has yet returned alive, because the DS people are also exposed to the no less dangerous mutants and monsters without protection.

After the death of their parents, a boy with DS, Kostya, and his sister live with a guardian who exploits and abuses them. The good-natured Kostya has always wanted to save the world and also wants to make himself and his sister independent with a lavish salary. Kostya lets himself be persuaded by the guardian to take on this life-threatening job. The guardian prevents the sister from finding out about it in time and collects the payment himself. Kostya and two companions receive a crash course on how to transport the chemical to the root of the plant to destroy the weeds. They are remote controlled via camera and headset. Kostya’s controller is Alex.

Parallel to this, investigations (as flash-forwards) are underway into strange serial murders. Beside the corpses lie their internal organs without any visible external injuries. The victims are bandits, murderers, drug dealers and others who bring suffering into the world.

When Kostya is the only survivor of his group to make it to the root after being attacked by the monsters, it becomes clear that the weed is not an alien parasite. It is a plant that grows from the fifth dimension into the fourth dimension and from there into our three-dimensional world and further into two-dimensionality. Through a portal at the root Kostya falls into the fourth dimension, which from now on enables him not only to see into the past of the third dimension, but also to appear there himself in different places at completely different times. When he sees how the drunken guardian is about to rape his underage sister, he appears in the apartment and kills him. And then he continues his own mission to eradicate evil. And everyone suddenly becomes afraid to commit evil at all, because a person with Down’s syndrome has voluntarily stayed in the fourth dimension to keep order in the world.

A parable about the two faces of good and evil and the one-dimensionality of our worldview.

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