Star Wars: Free Fall is a YA Novel written by Alex Segura & published by Disney Lucasfilm Press. This novel explores the history of Poe Dameron, so it takes place several years before The Force Awakens.

SUMMARY: After the death of his mother, Poe Dameron has a hard time connecting with his father, who prefers to have Poe stick close by and live off the land on the family farm. However, Poe just can’t do it, he has too much of his mother in him (Shara Bey, former pilot), he's desperate to get off Yavin IV and have an adventure.

A team of smugglers make a pit stop on Yavin IV. As luck would have it, Poe and the gang run into each other at a local bar. Coincidentally, they need a pilot, and Poe desperatly needs a way off Yavin 4. He’s duped into joining the group, who introduced themselves as smugglers. However, smugglers they are not, they are actually the Spice Runners of Kijimi. Smugglers are scoundrles, Spice Runners are also scoundrles, but also... much more dangerous and theiving.

Poe gets involved with the gang, but he is extremely conflicted by his decision to do so and can’t help but think of who he was, is, and who he will become. It's a tale of hope, choices, love, & family. We follow Poe Dameron on his youthful adventure as a Spice Runner of Kijimi and how it shapes him into the man he becomes.

CHARACTERS: There’s a cast of many new characters, but I’m going to mention two that are familiar.

Poe Dameron: He’s stubborn and has a hard time staying true to himself. He craves adventure more than anything, and sacrifices much to get what he wants... or is it what he really wants? Poe is the son of veteran Rebel fighters. His mother was A-Wing pilot, Shara Bey. His father, Kes Dameron, had belonged to a ground force unit known as the Pathfinders. Poe is conflicted, he does'nt want to be told what to do or how to live his life. He faces challenges head on and tends to learn the hard way.

Zorii Wynn: That's right I said Zorii Wynn, she goes by a different name at this point in her youth. She's a young gun in the Spice Runners of Kijimi. She has a thing for Poe, but a bigger thing for the lifestyle of the Spice Runners. She's strong willed and knows exactly what she wants. She's prepared for action and ready to strike, whatever the target may be. Zorii's portrayl in this tale explains so much more about who she is in The Rise of Skywalker.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: The book starts off with a bang, a nice intense action sequence! We quickly learn of Poe’s relationship with his father and his hearts desires. The book is action packed, pretty much from start to finish. It does slow down in parts to build on character moments between some of the cast. The book is a YA novel, but sometimes it reads like a junior novel. However, there are elements in the book that are too mature for a junior novel.

I am a little disappointed overall with the book, some things just didn’t make much sense. The way some characters spoke was a little odd, like what they said was supposed to be smart or comical. Same goes for some of the writing in general.

For example, “The trio turned to see a group officers shooting first and asking questions later.” It just doesn't make sense, "they saw a them asking questions later?" In the present?

Writing elements were repetitive making the structure predictable. Dialogue, action, thoughts, dialogue, action thoughts, repeat. The writing was nondescriptive, so imagining the story in my head was rather difficult. I don't need everything described and laid out for me, but a little more description would have been beneficial.

It’s succeeds as a fast paced action packed Star Wars tale!

Hyperspace skipping, this book proves that it’s pretty dumb concept. When the group is in trouble, they decide to hyperspace skip, jump from one dangerous location to the next, with hopes of slowing down their pursuers. Why not just go somewhere far away or just correct the issue while in hyperspace? Maybe the book is confirming that hyperspace is pretty much instantaneous and doesn’t take days to weeks to travel somewhere at great distances? I don’t like that one bit. So for this, I don’t know if it’s author to blame the story group. My bet goes to the story group, because we’ve seen this on film.

The Spice Runners of Kijimi are supposed to be so awesome and dangerous, they don’t really come off as such, becuase I can't recall a single spice running scheme. Yes, there are crazy things the group gets involved in, but seeing what the spice runners actually do isn't a thing we see.

So, do I recommend that you read Poe Dameron Free Fall? I'm going to say yes, especially if you like Poe Dameron and want more backstory on Zorii Bliss.

RATING: I will give this YA Novel a C+. It wasn't bad, it just take issue with some writing choices. Plus, it's hard to suprise us when we know the outcome of major characters.

I honestly, hand on heart, enjoyed this book a thousand times more than I expected. I was excited about it to begin with, but also a little wary. I’ve been stung before with Star Wars content. This book was not a letdown. It starts with Poe in trouble and I felt immediately like Alex Segura had a really good grasp on Poe’s characterisation and kept it consistent throughout the book. He’s not exactly the same as the Poe we know and love, but that’s a good thing. This Poe is sixteen, inexperienced and desperate for adventure, but I could very clearly see how he would develop into Poe Dameron, Resistance hero. After reading this one, I actually picked up my TROS novelisation and read that and it gave so much depth to the sections with Zorii and Babu and mentions of Poe’s past that I had to stop and think about Free Fall again. I love Poe and have from the start, but this novel gave me a strong and deep connection to a character that didn’t get explored so much in the movie and I loved it.

We also, of course, got our expected firefights and crazy aerial manoeuvres, blaster battles and cameo mentions of famous Star Wars characters but I liked that this was focused on Poe’s story – not one of Jedi and Sith and the Force. I liked the focus on smugglers, criminals and the New Republic instead. The Spice Runners of Kijimi are exactly as horrible and criminal as we’d expect, but their violence is softened a little for the younger Disney audience. This is the first Star Wars YA novel I’ve read where that softness is explained within the text though and justified with Poe’s internal conflict – he wants to be a part of the team but he doesn’t want to hurt people. This was perfect for characterising Poe and also had the benefit of not knocking me out of the realism of the moment. The Spice Runners, and their criminal operations, were a good background for Poe to develop and I felt like we really got to see Poe grow from a boy desperate for any kind of adventure into a man who realises that believing in the cause you’re fighting for is more important than the fight itself.

The real highlight of this book is the relationship between Poe and Zorii. They’re two teenagers growing together, finding companionship around harsh and dangerous adults and learning to be themselves. They teach each other skills and my favourite thing about it was that there were romantic tones to their interactions but ultimately they felt most like teenage friends finding comfort in each other. It explains the complicated relationship when they are reunited in The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the fact that Zorii was fast to anger and fast to forgive.

My full review will be live on my blog at the included link on the 30/07/2020.

The sixteen-year-old Poe Dameron leads a quiet, slow-paced life with his father on the Dameron family farm on Yavin 4. The young man believes that his parent is overprotective. A few years ago the Damerons did lose their loving wife and mother but surely that was no reason to burden the only son with such excessive care?

After another willful act and the conversation that followed, Poe decides to give everything up and run away into the unknown. Yet, to take to the sky, the young man needs a ship. And how fortunate! At a small local port he meets a group of dubious individuals who need urgently to get off the moon. They own a ship, but that’s where the holdup is — the pilot was dead, so there is no one to take the helm. Dameron immediately volunteers to help and does not even suspect what he is getting himself into — in fact, he now is in the company of the galaxy-famous spicerunners from planet Kijimi.

This is the rather simple setup of Alex Segura's novel “Poe Dameron: Free Fall” — a classic teen book story: the main character leaves his family's house and goes looking for adventures. Actually the story of Luke Skywalker begins almost the same way. However, Luke finds himself surrounded by good people and straightaway becomes a hero of the galaxy, while Dameron gets involved in some dark business first.

Poe leaves Yavin 4 almost at the very beginning of the story, and an extremely scant number of pages is devoted to his life on the jungle moon. The book almost instantly leaps to action, but despite this, the first third of the novel still seems very slowly unfolding. By its end, Poe only gets acquainted with the diverse company of spice runners and tries to become their new comrade.

Then the plot thickens: readers get to learn about operations that Dameron participates in and experience many moments that no good read for adolescents can do without: dashing and sometimes dangerous adventures, friendship, love, the first kiss, a touching scene with the father, deception, betrayal, a sense of loss and a new hope…

However, the reader is not always able to fully comprehend the development of the hero — the inner world of the character is often painted only in broad strokes behind which you can not see the depth of his emotions. I'm willing to put it down to the fact that the book is written in the form of a teen novel that does not involve meticulous disclosure of characters. Do I think it would be better to turn this story into a full-fledged “adult” novel? Probably not. After all, a book where the main character is a sixteen-year-old boy should be intended for his peers, not adults.

The author was successful in shaping out the character of young Poe. Here he is, the same dashing guy who is ready to rush headlong into the thick of battle without thinking about the consequences. This is how we saw Poe in “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi”. Only here all of it is multiplied by the pilot’s youthful exuberance and inflexibility, so no one can even talk about his wisdom and reasonableness.

In addition to Poe’s storyline, there is another one telling the readers about a New Republic security officer Sela Trune who has her own scores with spice runners to settle. However, it turns out that Tran’s story is there solely to force Poe Dameron to make a couple of fateful decisions and has no value apart from that.

For me, a long-time reader of “Star Wars” books, it has always been a separate pleasure to search all new stories for references and links to other characters or events in the galaxy far, far away, and here Segura did his best. The book contains plentiful references to various works of both the old Expanded Universe and the new Unified Canon, such as movies, spin-offs, animated and live-action series, computer games, reference books, comics and texts for “Star Wars” role-playing games. And this is not the complete list of products that I found references to in “Free fall”.

Thanks to that, the novel does not seem to be a detached and separate, somewhat torn-off story, but rather a new small flap, firmly sewn into the huge canvas called “Star Wars”.

This was a really good exploration of Poe Dameron's past and the legacy of his parents. We see Poe as a teenager trying to navigate his future when his father Kes just wants him to stay in place and be safe.
SEgura does a great job catching the feel of the Star Wars saga and Poe's emotional landscape.

In the Rise of Skywalker movie, Poe Dameron was aided by a mysterious helmeted female named Zorii Bliss. With Free Fall, we get the full backstory of their past and why Zorii was willing to help Dameron, even at the risk of her own life. Author Segura did an excellent job of researching and then putting together a history for Poe that makes sense and answers several questions about how he was involved with drug running. The plot does feel a bit episodic in several places so that it can seem formulaic: action, escalated action, escape. Repeat. But it is an enjoyable read nonetheless.

Story: Poe Dameron is as reckless as his famous rebellion fighter pilot mother; he chafes at a life on the farm in Yavin 4 and longs to take an A wing to the stars. When his frustration at 16 boils over, he impulsively agrees to helm the ship of a shady crew who need to leave the planet - one whose last pilot was murdered. Unfortunately for Poe, he signed on with the notorious drug smugglers the Spice Runners of Kijimi. But he also finds himself falling for fellow teen drug runner Zorii; a girl with a mysterious past of her own.

A lot of this story reminds me of Solo: A Star Wars story. I couldn't get Qira's face away when picturing Zorii (even though she was played by actress Keri Russell in Rise of Skywalker) and Poe seemed like a clone for young Han Solo. There isn't a lot of Star Wars either - few stormtroopers or Empire/First Order and with the New Republic now the 'bad' guys unable to bring justice and order to the galaxy. It was odd to see the New Republic appear to be interchangeable with the First Order, each with egotistical and Machiavellian officers.

The plotting is a bit stiff - following the formula I listed above. And the scenes jumped from one action to another with little in the way of segues or downtime. So as soon as one assignment for the smugglers is done, we jump weeks or months to the next one. It made the plotting a bit clunky as a result. There were a few twists which were nice to see - none too exciting but enough to make the story more interesting. But with the twists were also a minor set of logic holes (such as no one questioning how/why a loyal member would suddenly be revealed as a traitor and just not wondering what he/she did).

There is a romance, of sorts, and a lot of conflict in the story is Poe coming to grips with what it would mean to pursue this career of being a smuggler (betrayals, murdering). I appreciated that Zorii was the the stronger of the two, willing to get her hands dirty when Poe would not. Of course, we cannot have a Star Wars hero with a bad moral compass so Poe isn't going to go out and murder people or put up with others murdering.

In all, I did enjoy this story. And it was nice to have a backstory for Zorii Bliss and why she was willing to assist Poe in Rise of Skywalker. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

When I choose to read this book, I thought I knew some of Poe Dameron's back story from the Star Wars movies and the comic books, but Alex Segura gave life and made Poe a true hero in this origin story for one of the sequel trilogies characters. After reading this book, I feel that I appreciate the character of Poe more and a better understanding of the interaction between Zorii Bliss and Poe in the Rise of Skywalker. I wish this book came out before the movie. The story is fast-paced enough to keep the reader on the edge of their seat, but still has all the "feels" of a young adult book. The human connections between Poe and his parents, Poe and Zorii, and Poe and his own understanding of who he is, made Poe come to life off the page and the screen.

I didn't mind the book but was hoping for so much more. This type of book has always held great interest. This book was good but fell short of some of the best in Star Wars series.

"I want to thank Netgalley and Disney Publishing for my copy of Poe Dameron: Free Fall in exchange for an honest review.*

Poe Dameron: Free Fall started off strong and never let up! We get an in depth look of Poe's character and see his progression from a teenager eager to strike out on his own to someone who comes into his own and fights for what he thinks is right. We also get to see more of Zorii Bliss's character. She was someone we didn't see too much of in The Rise of Skywalker, and this novel offers the backstory of Poe and Zorii's relationship and how it evolved. I don't want to say much more than that. I will say that Alex Segura did a great job of delving deep into Poe's character. The novel never let up on the action. I would recommend this to any Star Wars fan who wants to learn more about Poe and his early years before he became a Resistance hero. So far August is looking to be a promising month for Star Wars!

Free Fall is a thrilling novel that follows Poe Dameron with the Spice Runners of Kijimi. Author Alex Segura did a great job showcasing the turmoil within Poe, and the challenges he faces as a young adult. With his parents having been remembered as heroes, the expectations put upon Poe's shoulders are overwhelming, as he decides to join up with scoundrels. The relationship between Poe and scoundrel Zorii Bliss is one of the main aspects of the book, as Poe confines with Bliss over similar circumstances. Additionally, the book has numerous references to other Star Wars media that will be appreciated by fans of the more intricate details. Free Fall is a story that seamlessly fills a gap of Poe's story that we've never seen before and is definitely worth picking up when it releases.

"You were a spice runner?" 

JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio wanted to create conflict between the main characters in The Rise of Skywalker and so gave each one a secret they were hiding. For Poe, this meant he now had a shady past as a drug dealer. This proved controversial. Some fans pointed out that the new backstory seemed to contradict other Star Wars stories about Poe Dameron, such as the novel Before the Awakening. Others noted that making the first Latino lead in the franchise a drug runner played into some unfortunate stereotypes. In the film, Finn and Rey seem to quickly forgive and forget Poe's shady past, but Alex Segura's Poe Dameron: Free Fall seems to exist largely to explain this new backstory.

According to the The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, the official explanation for the apparent "contradiction" with other sources is that Poe Dameron briefly joined the Spice Runners of Kijimi as a teenager, long before he joined the Republic and then Resistance navy. Free Fall covers Poe's entire criminal career (which seems to last about a year).

Secura said he researched the other books and novels about Poe Dameron and integrated them into the novel. His work shows. I especially liked the cameo from L'ulo L'ampar, Poe's longtime friend from the Poe Dameron comics. The Poe Dameron we see in this novel seems to be the same character as the one in those other sources of canon. All this helps make Poe's new backstory feel like less of an awkward retcon and more like a hidden part of Poe's past. 

However, Poe Dameron in Free Fall seems a bit too familiar to the man we know from the films. In the book, Poe is supposedly only 16 years old when he joins the Kijimi Spice Runners. Yet, he's already an ace pilot and pretty confident (although he has a few moments of doubt). He joins the Spice Runners because he longs for adventure, but never really finds himself in a position to compromise his moral integrity. Aside from thwarting attempts by the New Republic Security Bureau to capture the Spice Runners, Poe never commits any truly criminal acts. For all of Finn and Rey's outrage, nothing Poe does is particularly outrageous. He's still a "good guy."

The book is strongest when it comes to Poe's relationship with Zorii Bliss, which receives a lot of attention. This is also when Poe comes across most like a teenager. He clearly lacks the maturity for an adult relationship. While there are some sparks of intimacy, the relationship never approaches the traditional YA romance. In fact, Poe and Zorii's relationship is less about romance and more about two young people trying to find comfort and a sense of belonging. The book helps explain why in The Rise of Skywalker Zorii was both upset enough to kill Poe and yet also quick to overcome her anger. 

I don't think Free Fall is necessarily going to change the mind of anyone who hated the twist in The Rise of Skywalker. As I noted in my review, I certainly didn't love the film. However, I've enjoyed Oscar Isaac's portrayal of Poe Dameron, as well as Charles Soule's Poe Dameron comics, and enjoyed spending more time with the character in Free Fall. At the very least, it helped ameliorate the sense of frustration I initially had with the revelation that Poe was a spice runner. It turns out, the revelation is less about Poe having a shady past and more about him outgrowing the youthful need for "adventure." He learns that cause you're fighting for is far more important than the struggle itself.  

[NOTE: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review]

What have you done, Poe Dameron?

Alex Segura’s Poe Dameron: Free Fall asks this question repeatedly throughout the beautifully paced adventure that it presents, and I gotta tell you...I never got tired of hearing it. Free Fall weaves us a tale of a sixteen-year-old Poe Dameron who can’t imagine anything more dull than spending his days living with his father on the bucolic fields of Yavin IV.

So he decides to change his destiny.

After a particularly heated exchange with a well intentioned confidant and friend, the young hotshot takes to the stars alongside members of the Spice Runners of Kijimi where he encounters the thrill of flying among the stars, the horrible reality of the smuggling trade, and a girl named Zorii.

For everyone that was hoping to uncover what made the chemistry between Poe Dameron and Zorii Bliss so magnetic in The Rise of Skywalker, this is the exact book you’ve been looking for. Shades of Rae Carson’s Most Wanted litter this debut Star Wars adventure from Segura as he guides us through the evolution of Poe and Zorii’s relationship through a string of various heists, misadventures, and traps.

And yes, this is a kissing book.

While this novel could have simply been a way to fill in Poe’s personal timeline between his childhood and New Republic service, Segura instead chooses to breathe new life into one of our favorite characters of the Sequel Trilogy and one of our new favorites from Episode IX. Poe and Zorii are an exhilarating pair, and half the fun of the book is attempting to navigate the specifics of their relationship right alongside them.

Are they friends? Are they more? Will she kill him? Will he run?

The narrative continuously teases these questions as the story jumps from escapade to escapade alongside the Spice Runners, and that momentum brings this right alongside Rae Carson’s masterpiece with Han and Qi’ra.

Aside from the electric chemistry of Poe and Zorii, Poe Dameron: Free Fall effortlessly introduces us to a number of side characters that enrich the overall story without needlessly detracting from the drama we’re following. I found myself relating to the additional crew members mere pages after their introduction thanks to Segura’s specificity in creating their personalities, and by the end of the book, I knew exactly what separated the Spice Runners of Kijimi from other syndicates like the Pykes, the Hutts, and Crimson Dawn.

Not an easy feat for a book filled with new mythology.

Finally, Free Fall does a wonderful job acting as supplemental material to The Rise of Skywalker. While this is by no means its main objective, I couldn’t help but feel an intense desire to rewatch every sequence in Kijimi as I traced Poe and Zorii’s journey across the galaxy. When the squad finally made their way to the icy planet, I was practically shaking in my seat at the anticipation of seeing Babu Frik again, and that level of excitement honestly surprised me.

But that’s one of the beautiful parts of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Novels like Poe Dameron: Free Fall get to focus on parts of other media that you may have liked, and they have the power to turn them into things that you’ll love. Without spoiling any other Easter eggs that were deliciously sprinkled across the book, let’s just say that I’ll be firing up Episode IX again a lot sooner than I thought.

Much like the flying style of its titular protagonist, Poe Dameron: Free Fall is a rousing ride from start to finish. The high flying action intermingles perfectly with scenes of emotional devastation and evolution to create a fantastic entry in the Star Wars universe that you absolutely can’t miss.

If you like Poe Dameron: Free Fall, be sure to check out Most Wanted by Rae Carson for a similar tone and style and the Shattered Empire comic to learn more about Poe’s parents Kes Dameron and Shara Bey.

To start, I was very enthusiastic at the announcement of the novel and I do not last the suspense but I was not disappointed!

We find very pleasantly heads known as Zorii and that makes me very happy. The writing style is very particular but I appreciated it, Alex Segura is a very good author and he understood the mechanics of the character.

Unlike many YA novels, I didn't find that there was too much length, so congratulations!

The novel returns very quickly to Poe's childhood with the death of his mother and relations with his father, it is a pity that this part of the story was too short because I liked it.

This novel was the novel that was missing for a majority of poe's life to be known. With comics, movies and Star Wars Resistance, we know almost everything about Poe. Is that I like with the character. The book covers a good part of his life and the writing has not been swept away.

He has lots of little references to episode 7, comics and it's very cool!

To conclude it is an excellent novel which is very well written. We go straight into the plot and we finally learn more about the youth of Poe. In short, a very good novel that I recommend to everyone!

My full review will be available on Star Wars HoloNet on August 4, 2020.

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.
Wow, what a ride. This is one of the best canon books that I have read. Alex Segura perfectly captures the essence of Poe Dameron. We meet Poe here as a restless youth, grieving the loss of his mother and at odds with his father. True to his character, hijinks abound and he winds up with more adventure than he bargained for.

Filled with action, heroics and derring do, we meet a collection of smugglers, pirates, bounty hunters and more. While action packed, author Segura never looses sight of characterizations. I came to like these rogues and the twists and turns were surprising. At various points Poe must determine who he will become and what he will stand for. The mysterious Zorri Bliss must also decide who she will become and what she will stand for.

I found this book hard to put down and waited until I had plenty of time to devote to it. I did half the book in one evening, it was enthralling. It also ties into the Rise of Skywalker beautifully. I can’t wait for the audio version of this. Free Fall was an E ticket thrill ride that was fun. A fantastic book!

Scoundrels, spice and space-battles! Segura perfectly captures Poe Dameron’s trademark swagger, delivering a fast-paced, planet-hopping thrill-ride that screams Star Wars from beginning to end.

Poe Dameron: Free Fall explores the titular character’s life at the age of 16. This is his origin story, and it paints him as a mixture between Luke (farm boy on a boring planet who yearns to leave) and Han (makes questionable choices and gets wrapped up in the world of smuggling).

Although it starts off a bit shaky with a lot of emphasis placed on Poe’s teenage angst, we do learn a lot of interesting details about his family and their connection to the Rebel Alliance. After Poe gets his wish of leaving Yavin 4, things gets a lot more exciting.

As with most Star Wars novels, there’s a lot of action and adventure, along with some humor and light romance. Free Fall does a good job of explaining the “Poe used to be a smuggler” comments from Rise of Skywalker.

Where the book falters a bit is in the repetitious nature of Poe’s thoughts about his career as a smuggler. The author wanted to make sure that readers really, really, really understand the conflict within the young pilot. It would have been better to cut some of this because the message would have been easily hammered home with even a 1/4 of Poe’s inner monologue. Aside from that, though, Free Fall makes a good addition to the YA line of Star Wars canon books.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura, with cover art by Phil Noto, follows one of our favorite newer Star Wars character in his teen years with all that entails. There comes a time in every teenager’s life when they’re away from home for the first time and trouble comes where they can’t just call mom or dad to come pick them up or tell them what to do. They have to decide what to do for themselves. Do they pick the easiest way? Do they do what feels right? Is it the ethical thing to do? Would it make their parents proud? Would it impress that person they have a huge crush on? Of course, it would be Poe to find himself in this kind of situation when it’s literally a life or death situation.

What doesn’t happen so often with books about teenagers is their parents’ perspective. The older I get, the more I feel for Owen and Beru Lars, just trying to do their best the only way they know how and keep their adoptive son from harm, including who his father really is. Kes Dameron, like most parents, doesn’t want to be the villain. He loves Poe, but Shara’s death broken him, too. How can you keep a person close to protect them when you’ve pushed everyone who cares about you away because it hurt too much? How can that rift mend? Can it mend? “What have I done?” ask several characters which reinforces the theme, but almost feels too forced and repetitive.

Yeah, it’s a bildungsroman, but this is Star Wars so it’s a little different when you’re becoming an adult in a universe with the same growing pains. Poe was just seven when the Empire was destroyed for good in the Battle of Jakku. His parents had already retired to civilian life on Yavin IV. However, the destruction of the Empire led to a plethora of opportunities for criminal organizations taking advantage of a young government without a widespread Navy with the proper budget and numbers to keep watch. Bad for them, but good for the reader wanting excitement because this book also happens to be a crime novel with double crosses, triple crosses and crosses that are later revealed not to have even been crosses at all! Very few of the chapters can be predicted from the chapter before it. Anything can happen and anyone can show up. Alex Segura’s writing doesn’t waste a word either progressing the characterization or keeping the momentum although sometimes, the shifts in character perspective could be a little more clear or even eliminated with the less important characters.

There are times when facing your fears can lead to some of your greatest friendships and put you right on the path where you were always supposed to be. It’s a reassuring message and even nicer disguised in a Star Wars book. Being a Young Adult novel, it brings up the idea of wonderful topics for a parent and child to discuss together.

For the hard-core Star Wars fan, there is so much revealed that it will probably need to be read at least twice, probably more like 3-5 times to fully appreciate and write down everything learned within for use in fanfiction, fandom essays and more. After downloading my Advanced Reader Copy a week ago, I’ve read it twice and am looking forward to my third reading. Pre-order your copy now wherever books are sold for August 4, 2020!

https://books.disney.com/book/poe-dameron-free-fall/

This book provides great detail into Poe's background with a fun and interesting story. I now watch The Rise of Skywalker with a different insight into his and Zorii's relationship, which is a lot of fun. Definitely recommend reading!

I love Poe and the Damerons and previous books and comics about them. This is faithful to those stories. The author definitely did his homework. I was intrigued by Poe’s seedy past and I think Alex Segura did a great job expanding on that little nugget from the movie. I enjoyed Zorii and her own struggles. It added a lot to their scenes together in the movie. I would recommend this book. Look for it in August.

Straight from the offset, you recognise Poe. He’s a teenager, but he still has that rebellious streak, the one that will do whatever he wants because HE thinks it’s the right thing to do. Behaviour that gets him in to a world of trouble.
I love Zorri’s introduction. It keeps the suspense going about “who” she is whilst you go on a journey of discovery through Poe’s eyes.
The light speed skipping scene is fantastic. You feel like you’re right inside the ship with the Spice Runners, so now I understand why Rey was so mad!!
These little nods to the Rise of Skywalker give you enough connection to the movie without it being about the movie, and without having to plug existing characters.
It feels like Star Wars, sounds like Star Wars and it’s authentically Star Wars.
Loved learning about the different gangs, that was a pleasant surprise as some of the gangs are known to the Galaxy (like the Guavian Death Gang)
The only thing that’s a little jarring is the jumps in time in the first half of the book. Just as you settle in to one period of time, it ends and skips forward a few months.

Chapter 26 was an unexpected surprise, and from there the book has so many unexpected twists and turns.
This is a proper “space pirate” battle, with Poe hitting a crossroad that you know which path he will choose, you just didn’t know how.
This is a super fun, fast paced story that fills that TROS backstory of why Zorri Bliss hated Poe when she saw him again after all those years.

Whether you’re a young reader or a seasoned Star Wars veteran, this is well worth a read!

Free Fall is everything that you would expect from a YA book focused on Poe Dameron: it’s a fast-paced bildungsroman involving a young hot-shot pilot getting into trouble with criminals in a galaxy far, far away. Poe’s parents are former rebellion heroes who settled down on Yavin 4 after the fall of the Empire, but the peace that his father values is driving Poe crazy. All Poe wants is to fly, like his mom, and have a life of adventure. His father only wants Poe to be safe. This opposition leads Poe to hastily accept a job as a pilot before he learns that he’ll be flying for the Spice Runners of Kijimi. Although he didn’t anticipate joining a criminal organization, Poe quickly falls into a life of adventure and into friendship with Zorii Bliss.

One of the most important things for me when reading a SW novel is to hear the voice of known characters when reading. Segura captures the voice of Poe, Zorii, and Babu Frik and they come life on the page. It’s great to read about what is obviously a pivotal time for Poe in his teens and to learn more about his backstory. I was also excited to learn more about the mysterious Zorii whom we met in TROS. I do wish that the interaction with Poe and Zorii had been shown more on page. They share many adventures, but we are told many times about their friendship and the quiet moments when they bonded away from the crew, yet we don’t see that foundation of their friendship. Nevertheless, when it comes to giving background on events that are hinted at in TROS, this book does a great job.

Free Fall is a fun adventure story and a good addition to the SW canon. TROS hinted at an intriguing backstory for Poe and Zorii, and Segura delivers.