Dan Simmons, whose novels range from science fiction to thrillers, talks about the feebleness of today's "serious" fiction and what we can all learn from Tom Wolfe.

Salon Q&A: Tech visionary Jaron Lanier on Thomas Piketty, Jeff Bezos and Amazon, how to save the creative class

He's been a killer, an Elephant Man and an alien-infested, chain-smoking astronaut. And through it all, John Hurt has never been anything less than irresistible.

Updike's biographer tells Salon where he stands in the pantheon, and details of that David Foster Wallace review