VOISKUNSKY, Evgeny (L'vovich)

(1922-)

   Russian naval officer, journalist and writer; he wrote in collaboration with Isa Borisovich Lukodianov (1913-1984), a design engineer, until the latter's death. Their first novel was Ekipazh "Mekonga" (1961; cut trans Leonard Stoklitsky as The Crew of the Mekong1974 Russia), a long but fast-moving HARD-SF examination of 2 intersecting projects: an attempt to increase the surface tension of oil so that it can be sent without needing pipelines; and an investigation of the scientific principles behind an ancient knife whose blade is interpenetrable with matter. En passant, the Caspian Sea is raised. A sequel, Ur, Syn Shama ("Ur, Son of Sham") (1975), depicts an encounter with ALIENS, who bringthe protagonist, an ancient Babylonian kidnapped eons earlier, back to Earth. Tchiorny Stolb (1963), a short novel trans anon as "The BlackPillar" in The Molecular Cafe (anth ed anon Arkady and Boris STRUGATSKI trans 1968 Russia), depicts a NEAR FUTURE global catastrophe as the result of deep drilling of Earth's mantle. In Otchen' Daliokii Tartess ("Far Distant Tartess") (1968) ATLANTIS meets its doom when localscientist-priests discover the secret of atomic energy. Plesk zviozdenykh Morei ("Star Seas Lapping") (fixup 1970) deals with the TERRAFORMING ofVENUS, and a long-frustrated but finally successful attempt to initiate interstellar travel. Some short work was assembled in Na Perekriostkakh Vremeni ("At the Crossroads of Time") (coll 1964); a late novel wasNezakonaia Planeta ("The Illegal Planet") (1980).

VG/JC