dystopia – Page 19

The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge

Wednesday, November 11, 2009Wednesday, January 20, 2010 Jesse Willis

For the past few years, on November 11th, we’ve offered the following challenge to SFFaudio readers:

“We’ll give you an audiobook if you make one for everyone else.”

Sweet deal huh?

And, we’re offering the same deal this year. We’ll give you a BRAND NEW audiobook if you make make an audiobook out of one of the eTexts we provide you links to. All you’ll need to do is claim a title (by email), record the audiobook using your own voice, and follow the rules (see the first comment of this post for the rules).

Still feeling a little unclear on how it all works? Then have a look at our past SFFaudio CHALLENGES:

This year we’ve got 20 ebooks that need turning into audiobooks and we’ve got 20 BRAND NEW audiobooks to give away as prizes! No matter where you are on the planet Earth, if you finish and release your claimed audiobook, we will ship you your prize!

Interested?

If so, THE FIRST THING you need to do is PICK ONE OF THESE ebooks…

Challenge Titles:

***[CLAIMED BY Krisztina Hidasi on NOV. 29, 2009]
Star Dragon*
By Mike Brotherton
A 2003 novel.
*This novel is released under a Creative Commons license. I recommend confirming the audiobook version being okay with Mike Brotherton before claiming this title.
|MIKE BROTHERON’S WEBSITE|
***

***[CLAIMED BY Jerry Pyle on NOV. 13, 2009] COMPLETED
D-99*
By H.B. Fyfe
A 1962 Novel.
*This novel comes courtesy of WONDER AUDIO |HTML|PDF|***

***[CLAIMED BY Mike Hagerty on NOV. 15, 2009]
The Inheritors (An Extravagant Story)
By Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford
A 1901 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|
|WIKIPEDIA ENTRY|***

***[CLAIMED BY Scott Hall on NOV. 13, 2009]
The Planet Strappers
By Raymond Z. Gallun
A 1961 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Julie Davis on NOV. 12, 2009]
Breaking Point
By James E. Gunn
A novelette.
From Space Science Fiction, March, 1953
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Evan Wade on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Night Of The Long Knives
By Fritz Leiber
A novella.
From Amazing Science Fiction Stories January 1960.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Kevin Jackson on NOV. 13, 2009]
Pariah Planet
By Murray Leinster
A novella (34,000 words) – but advertised as a novel.
From Amazing Stories, July 1961.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Matt Soar on NOV. 13, 2009]
The Iron Heel
By Jack London
A 1908 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|
|WIKIPEDIA ENTRY|***

***[CLAIMED BY David Sobkowiak on NOV. 12, 2009]
Empire
By Clifford D. Simak
A 1951 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Danielle Blake on NOV. 15, 2009]
Pagan Passions
By Randall Garrett and Larry M. Harris
A 1959 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Kelly Fann on NOV. 13, 2009]
Ministry Of Disturbance
By H. Beam Piper
A novelette.
From Astounding Science Fiction, December 1958.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Chris Johnson on NOV. 13, 2009]
A Slave is a Slave
By H. Beam Piper
A novella.
From Analog Science Fact—Science Fiction April 1962.
PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Ross Smith on NOV. 13, 2009]
Sweet Their Blood And Sticky
By Albert R. Teichner
A short story.
From “Worlds of If” November 1961.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Ted Puffer on NOV. 18, 2009]
The Impossibles (Book 2 in the Psi-Powers series)
By Randall Garrett and Laurence M. Janifer (writing as Mark Phillips)
A 1963 novel.
Published in Analog as “Out Like a Light. This is the sequel to Brain Twister.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Bruce M Campbell on NOV. 13, 2009]
Cubs Of The Wolf
By Raymond F. Jones
A novelette.
From Astounding Science Fiction November 1955.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Karen Savage on NOV. 13, 2009]
Ultima Thule
By Mack Reynolds
A novella.
From Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961.
Part of the “United Planets” series.
|GUTENBERG.ORG|***

***[CLAIMED BY Lee Huttner on NOV. 12, 2009]
Spring-Heeled Jack – The Terror of London
By anonymous
A 1840s penny dreadful novella.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|

***[CLAIMED BY David Drage on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Thing On The Roof
By Robert E. Howard
A short story.
First published in Weird Tales February 1932.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|***

***[CLAIMED BY Mary Casey Walsh on NOV. 13, 2009]
Pigeons From Hell
By Robert E. Howard
A novelette.
First published by Weird Tales in 1938.
|GUTENBERG AUSTRALIA|***

***[CLAIMED BY John Aho on NOV. 12, 2009]
The Air Ship Boys (or The Quest of the Aztec Treasure)
By H.L. Sayler
A 1909 novel.
|PROJECT GUTENBERG|***

SECONDLY, you’ll want to DEEPLY CONSIDER all that your project will entail. [THINK AHEAD, PLAN IT OUT]

After you’ve carefully thought it through you can write me an email, with the details of your plan.

Answer these questions:

1. How are you planning to release your audiobook? Via LibriVox? Podiobooks.com? In your own podcast? Through Audible.com? Somehow else?

2. How long do you expect it to take? When will you be finished? How many hours will it take to record it? Will you proof listen as you go?

Answer those questions in your email to me. Emails that show a lack of forethought WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. So, have a bit of a read of the ebook you’re interested in narrating. Consider the difficulty involved, and then, if you’re still excited about The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge, email me with your plan.

My email address is:

[email protected]

Make the subject line:

“The 4th Annual SFFaudio Challenge”

Once an email is received, showing the appropriate forethought required, I will stake your claim in this post.

LASTLY, here are the goodies available (provided by Simon And Schuster Audio, Brilliance Audio, Poe Audio and The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society)…

Prizes:

Swoon
By Nina Malkin; Read by Caitlin Greer
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: May 2009
ISBN: 0743582004

Star Trek (Movie Tie In)
By Alan Dean Foster; Based on the movie written by Roberto Orci and Alex Hurtzman; Read by Zachary Quinto
7 CDs – 8 Hours – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780743598347
|READ OUR REVIEW|

The Dragon’s Eye (Book 1 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: April 2009
ISBN: 0743581393

The Monsters Of Otherness (Book 2 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: April 2009
ISBN: 0743581415

Search For Truth (Book 3 in the Erec Rex series)
By Kaza Kingsley; Read by Simon Jones
11 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: June 2009
ISBN: 0743583868

The House Of The Scorpion
By Nancy Farmer; Read by Raul Esparza
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 0743572467

Leviathan
By Scott Westerfeld; Read by Alan Cumming
CD – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 0743583884

The Mortal Instruments (includes City of Ashes, City of Bones, and City of Glass)
By Cassandra Clare; Read by Ari Graynor and Natalie Moore
MP3 3 CDs? – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 1442303778

Hush, Hush
By Becca Fitzpatrick; Read by Caitlin Greer
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 074359956X

The Search For The Red Dragon
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 074356913X

Here There be Dragons
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
7 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: January 2008
ISBN: 0743569105

The Shadow Dragons
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
9 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2009
ISBN: 0743583744

The Indigo King
By James A. Owen; Read by James Langton
8 CDs – [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 0743574710

Earth Abides
By George R. Stewart; Read by Jonathan Davis
13 CDs – 15 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9781441806147
|Listen to an AUDIO SAMPLE|

H.P.Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2007
|READ OUR REVIEW|

H.P.Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out of Time
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2008

H.P.Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS / Dark Adventure Radio Theatre
Published: 2008

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 6-8: The Cask of Amontillado and Other Stories
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
3 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours 30 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058147

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 9: The Pioneers
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
6 CDs – Approx. 7 Hours 32 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: 2009
ISBN: 9780980058154

Edgar Allan Poe Audiobook Collection 10: Deus et Machina
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Christopher Aruffo
4 CDs – Approx. 4 Hours 39 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Poe Audio / Acoustic Learning
Published: September 2009
ISBN: 9780980058161

As claims are accepted they will be noted on the list. As prizes are shipped they will be noted on the list. Links to where the completed audiobooks can be found will be added to this post!

Get selecting folks!

[extra thanks to Gregg Margarite and Rick Jackson]

COMPLETED TITLES:

Ultima Thule
By Mack Reynolds; Read by Karen Savage
13 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 2 Hours 29 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 23, 2009
Ronny Bronston has dreamed all his life of getting a United Planets job that would take him off-world. He finally gets the opportunity when he is given a provisional assignment with Bureau of Investigation, Section G. But will he be able to complete his assignment and find the elusive Tommy Paine? First published in Analog Science Fact & Fiction March 1961.

Podcast feed:

http://librivox.org/rss/3735

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

D-99
By H.B. Fyfe; Read by Jerry Pyle
20 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 40 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: January 03, 2010
EARTHMEN IN TROUBLE Harris was caged in an underwater “zoo” by a pack of blue lobsters. Maria drew a five-year sentence on a puritanical planet for trying to buy a souvenir–and for being excessively feminine. Taranto and Meyers had committed the crime of being shipwrecked on a planet that didn’t like strangers. Gerson was simply kidnapped. And nobody had any idea why five citizens of Terra were being held on other worlds–and the ultra-secret Department 99 existed only to set them, and others like them, free. This tense novel is the story of one evening’s work for Department 99–their successes and failures–and of the strange crisis that almost wrecked D-99.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/3755

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

The audiobook is also available in two etext formats |PDF | and |HTML| – in case you’d like to read along!

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Release from Audible Frontiers: The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi

Thursday, September 17, 2009 Jesse Willis

New Releases

Steve Feldberg, the spearhead behind the thrust that is Audible Frontiers, writes in to say:

“I wanted to draw your attention to our production of Paolo Bacigalupi’s THE WINDUP GIRL, which just went in the store this week.

Every review of this book is a rave – and it’s being called one of the best if not THE best SF books of the year.

Our production is especially great since it’s narrated by Jonathan Davis; you might recall that his narration of Robert J. Sawyer’s CALCULATING GOD won the 2009 Audie Award for Sci-Fi.

This one’s definitely worth a listen.”

Cool! Davis is also the narrator for the praiseworthy “Starship” series by Mike Resnick!

The Windup Girl
By Paolo Bacigalupi; Read by Jonathan Davis
Audible Download – Approx. [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Audible Frontiers
Published: September 15, 2009
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history’s lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko…Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe. What happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism’s genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? In The Windup Girl, award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi returns to the world of The Calorie Man (Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winner, Hugo Award nominee, 2006) and Yellow Card Man (Hugo Award nominee, 2007) in order to address these poignant questions.

The novel’s title seemed familiar, so I looked on my bookshelf and spotted Infinivox’s The Fluted Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (it’s also available via Audible.com).

[Thanks Steve!]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Blake’s 7 – When Vila Met Gan (Vol. 1.1)

Monday, August 24, 2009Monday, August 24, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

SFFaudio Essential Blake’s 7 – When Vila Met Gan (Vol. 1.1)
By Ben Aaronovitch; Performed by a full cast
1 CD – Approx. 50 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: B7 Media
Published: October 2008
ISBN: 9781906577056
Themes: / Science Fiction / Crime / Dystopia /

Earth. 2230 AD. A time of social and political turmoil. Olag Gan wants to marry the woman of his dreams. Vila Restal wants to steal anything that isn’t nailed down. When they form a partnership, a perfect combination of strength and skill, it seems that nothing stands between them and the easy life. But fate hates to give a sucker an even break and the course of true love never did run smooth.

Though set after the events of the Blake’s 7 – Audio Adventures (Trilogy Box Set) |READ OUR REVIEW| When Vila Met Gan is primarily a prequel showing Gan and Vila back on Earth. There they work in the criminal underworld, Vila as a burglar and Gan as syndicate muscle. This is where the show shines, with Ben Aaronovitch having carefully constructed even more of the world he illustrated in the Trilogy Box Set. Very little of Earth was shown in the original television series – so Aaronovitch makes the tyranny of Earth actually tyrannical by drawing heavily upon the culture and lexicon of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The story on Earth is set within a framing sequence in which a post-Trilogy Box Set Vila and Gan are visiting a colony world. They are there to take some much needed shore leave – but after they’ve spent all their money boozing up the planet Gan gets misty, and pines for his lost love back on Earth. It is at this point the narrative jumps back to Pre-Trilogy Box Set London (Rog Blake is still just a reformer candidate in upcoming planetary elections).

The story itself runs 30 minutes. The writing is fresh and funny with Gan and Vila make a terrific pair. Michael Keating, reprising the role he created in the original TV series, sounds just like he did on the show (even 30 years on). Owen Aaronovitch plays Gan. Also noticeable in this script is Ben Aaronovitch’s addressing of the original TV series “teleport” capabilities. The TV B7 “teleporter” and Star Trek‘s “transporter” technologies have been seen by SF fans as a kind of deus ex-machina. I think that’s why they were left out of the Trilogy Box Set. But, in When Vila Met Gan, our stranded heroes bemoan the lack of teleport technology. It verges on self-parody, but in the context of the framing story it works very well. This is a serial audio drama series of the highest caliber.

Also included on the CD are the Season 1 trailer, and the Season 2 trailer!

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Starman’s Quest by Robert Silverberg

Saturday, June 13, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

LibriVox Hey now! Check out the FREE audiobook of Robert Silverberg’s second ever novel, a “juvenile” written by a juvenile…

“This was my second novel, which I wrote when I was 19, in my junior year at Columbia. I’ve written better ones since. But readers interested in the archaeology of a writing career will probably find much to explore here.”
-Robert Silverberg 17 May 2008

Starman’s Quest is probably most famously remembered for employing the “twin paradox.” Other elements included in the book include a dystopian/utopian earth of the 37th century. Earth overpopulated and jobs are few and far between for anyone who isn’t in a hereditary guild. There’s also “a kind of enforced consumerism” in which it is considered immoral to save money – “everyone must buy, buy, buy.” The only legal profession open to those without a guild is gambling.

Starman’s Quest
By Robert Silverberg; Read by Dawn Larsen
20 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 5 Hours 17 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: June 12, 2009
Traveling at speeds close to that of light, spacemen lived at an accelerated pace. When one of the twin boys left the starship, he grew older while his twin in space barely aged. So the starship twin left the ship to find what happened to his brother who was aging away on earth.

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/bookfeeds/starmans-quest-by-robert-silverberg.xml

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

Posted by Jesse Willis

In Our Time: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Monday, April 20, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Online Audio

BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time radio show is always thoughtful and informative – a recent show on the topic of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is no exception…

“Melvyn Bragg is joined by David Bradshaw, Michele Barrett and Daniel Pick to discuss the anxieties and ambitions in Aldous Huxley’s dystopian novel Brave New World“

Bragg, the host, and his guests approach Brave New World from a very biographical/historical perspective – finding the roots for Huxley’s dystopia/utopia in his engagement with the legacy of H.G. Wells, eugenics, Social Darwinism, and his impressions of the United States (particularly New Mexico and California). All Alphas should have a listen |REALAUDIO|.

[via Anne Is A Man]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Starman Jones by Robert A. Heinlein

Wednesday, March 4, 2009Wednesday, March 4, 2009 Jesse Willis

SFFaudio Review

Starman Jones
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Paul Michael Garcia
7 CDs – 8.5 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
ISBN: 9781433230387
Themes: / Science Fiction / Space Travel / Aliens / Dystopia /

It was a desperate time, when one’s next meal and the comforts of home couldn’t be taken for granted. Max Jones, a practical, hard-working young man, found his escape in his beloved astronomy books. When reality comes crashing in and his troubled home life forces him out on the road, Max finds himself adrift in a downtrodden land. Until an unexpected, ultimate adventure carries him away as a stowaway aboard an intergalactic spaceship—but to where? And when? And how could he ever get back? With the ship’s pilot dead and his charts and tables all destroyed, Max must call upon all of his untested knowledge and skills in order to survive.

There’s nothing like going back to that old-time Science Fiction. Heinlein’s novels are steeped in the inspissate brew of American idealism. Puritanical hard work, honesty and humility are mixed with the libertarian and the liberal, the conservative and the anarchistic. These aren’t just the bywords of Heinleinian characters, they’re the fundamentals of their character – all that, and tempered too with happy portions of both skepticism and hucksterism. A Heinlein character is just as likely to be a gruff middle aged con-man (honest in his own fashion) as a naive wundderkind. The naive wundderkind is often found with a variously doting, tolerant, and even brighter sweetheart. We find all three, the canny conman, the boy genius and his devoted young woman, along with a whole lot more in Starman Jones.

There are three main sections of Starman Jones. Most of the folks who talk about the novel talk about the middle section – where Max works his way up the chain of command in a luxury spaceliner. Indeed, this is what gives the novel its title. The third section, set on board a primitive alien planet has some nicely interesting aliens (a whole novel could have been done there). Personally I liked the first third, set on a vaguely dystopic planet Earth. This is a land of no-opportunity, in order to get a decent job you have to inherit it. Vested interests, taking the form of professional guilds, seem to have staked out every possible avenue for advancement. Sure, there are people there willing to bend the rules to kind-hearted kids like Jones, but the general rule is a complacency towards pervasive corruption. At one point during this first third a kindly truck driver, hopped up on amphetamines, gets Max to help him break the rules of the road (that you have to pull over and sleep once in a while). That scene and another, gives an odd kind of atmosphere of low-level-corruption that Heinlein seems fairly comfortable with. Later still, with the only ticket off the sewed-up planet Earth is via false documents and bribery – Max goes for it, to the detriment of his conscience only after the fact.

In other juvenile novels, like Citizen Of The Galaxy, a Heinleinian protagonist will stay “dirtside” where he’ll grift and finagle his way through life – justifying each action step by step – here and frankly in every single Heinlein story that I’ve ever read, the bad guys are never bad because of the greed or corruption per se, but rather because they are dumb, ignorant and vain.This is a Heinlein failing I think. His cardboard cut-out villians are too dim, too dull-humored and too officious to be any real threat. There are at least two of these lame-brains in this novel. That got me to thinking. If one were to rewrite a Heinlein novel from the strawman’s point of view – it’d be extremely obvious who Heinlein had meant the hero to be [namely Heinlein’s own ideas and values – however ambivalent they are]. But, don’t let this criticism let you think I don’t like Starman Jones because, warts and all, I really did enjoy it.

Paul Michael Garcia is ably suited to reading Heinlein’s well chosen words – giving the dialogue-heavy prose a banter-like give and take. Garcia’s range too is very impressive, voicing Max Jones as youthful and energetic, his older pal Sam as languid and confident, the girl, the mom, the step-dad, the alien spacepet, and everyone else – all in unique voice. It really is the ideal reading. I’ve been a fan of Garcia’s narration since Blackstone picked him for Kirinyaga. Despite a lot of technical jargon, especially while talking astrogation, I only heard one tiny mispronunciation in the whole novel. Concomitant meaning “occurring or existing concurrently.” Garcia read it as “konk-mittant.” The original art that Blackstone has given Starman Jones looks good, if a bit generic, but a closer inspection – past the silhouetted landscape and into the roiling clouds will admit a bit more detail in the night’s overcast sky.

Posted by Jesse Willis