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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Lit Books Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura

Discussion in 'Literature' started by Ancient Whills, Jan 29, 2020.

  1. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    https://www.polygon.com/2020/1/29/21113799/star-wars-poe-dameron-freefall-release-date-zorii-bliss
    [​IMG]
    This This December’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker brushed up against Poe Dameron’s younger days when the Resistance pilot stopped by the planet Kijimi. In just a few brief scenes we heard of Poe’s days smuggling spice, met Zorii Bliss and Babu Frick, and watched the First Order march through the streets of a rich, but mostly unexplored world.

    Fans looking to learn more about Poe’s pre-sequel-trilogy days on Kijimi are in luck: Polygon can confirm that a new book, Star Wars: Poe Dameron: Free Fall, is officially slated for Aug. 4, 2020. Written by Alex Segura of the Peter Fernandez mystery series, and with cover art by Alice X. Zhang, the YA novel will wind back the clock to before Poe was a hot-headed pilot to a time when he was just a hot-headed teenager. Here’s the description:

    It’s been a few years since Poe’s mother passed away, and Poe and his father, who was a pilot for the Rebellion, have had more and more trouble connecting. Not sure what he wants to do with his life, teenage Poe runs away from home to find adventure, and to figure out what kind of man he is meant to be.

    Polygon corresponded with Segura via email to get even more details on the latest Star Wars announcement.

    Polygon: The Rise of Skywalker set up lots of room for backstory — how does the book deepen what we saw?

    Segura: I think Free Fall will answer some of the biggest questions fans will have coming out of The Rise of Skywalker: what was Poe Dameron’s secret history as a spice runner, and what does it have to do with the mysterious, helmet-wearing Zorii Bliss? The book will spend a lot of time with Poe during his formative teen years, where we see him grow into the man we meet at the beginning of The Force Awakens.

    What excites you about writing for Poe in this setting?

    I love complex, multi-faceted characters that aren’t easily categorized. Poe is, of course, a hero — but that doesn’t mean he woke up one day fully formed in terms of his beliefs and experiences. Poe’s loyal, driven, extremely sharp, and stubborn — but the chance to tell the story of how he came to be that Poe, and the shady, dangerous corners of the galaxy he had to walk through to get there, was extremely appealing to me as a storyteller. Free Fall is very much a galactic crime novel, in that it explores the seedier side of the Star Wars universe through the eyes of one of its most relatable characters. It’s been a blast to work on this.

    What should Star Wars fans know going into the novel?

    This story not only answers a few burning questions from The Rise of Skywalker, but also serves as the Poe Dameron origin a lot of people have been clamoring for. I’m thankful to everyone at Lucasfilm for having the confidence in me to tell this pivotal story. In addition to the films, I’m also really indebted to the work of writers like Charles Soule, Greg Rucka, and Rebecca Roanhorse — to name a few — for fleshing out key moments in Poe’s life and creating some really exciting jumping-off points to tinker with.

    Free Fall doesn’t just connect the dots, though — it adds texture and weight to these unexplored parts of Poe’s backstory while also letting rip with an action-packed, thrilling adventure that’s firmly entrenched in the Star Wars mythos.

    Star Wars: Poe Dameron: Free Fall arrives to shelves on Aug. 4, 2020, and will be available for pre-order later this month.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2020
  2. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    Lol at the several mentions of answering questions people have from TROS. Poe’s sudden smuggler backstory is very low on the list of things I want answered about the film. More books in the pre-TFA period is never a bad thing, though.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  3. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
    It's still the most predictable choice considering how many stories are centered on Poe in the ST era. I don't expect post-TROS stories about Rey, Finn, Jannah and Rose for a while at least, especially with all the Project Luminous announcement coming really soon.
     
  4. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    I'm not expecting anything post-TROS for years.
     
    devilinthedetails likes this.
  5. ColeFardreamer

    ColeFardreamer Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Nov 24, 2013
    Not looking forward to this... especially if the summary already is full of continuity errors! Poe's dad was a pilot? Since when? His mom was, his dad was a spec forces soldier on the ground!
     
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  6. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 12, 2011
  7. themoth

    themoth Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Dec 5, 2015
    Yeah. Big meh to this novel.
     
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  8. Grievousdude

    Grievousdude Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Jan 27, 2013
    I liked Zorii in the movie. Should be fun finding out more about her and what's going on in the underworld at this point in time.
     
    devilinthedetails likes this.
  9. Barriss_Coffee

    Barriss_Coffee Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 29, 2003
    I hope this story begins with Poe telling Kaz and his friends a story about his glory days and what it takes to be a pilot. And it just goes down from there. Freely. Falling. Into drug-ridden debauchery.
     
    Nobody145, SyndicThrass and BigAl6ft6 like this.
  10. Darth_Duck

    Darth_Duck Chosen One star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 13, 2000


    He's a good boy, loved his momma
    Flies X-Wings and an A-Wing too
    He's a good boy, going through a hard time
    Flies away from his home on the moon

    Now it's long days livin' on Kijimi
    There's a spacelane that takes you very far
    She's a bad girl, you can't see her face now
    She's a bad girl, could break your heart

    And Poe's free
    Free fallin'
    And Poe's free
    Free fallin'
     
  11. BigAl6ft6

    BigAl6ft6 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Nov 12, 2012
    Poe Dameron runner of Spice novel, eh?

    [​IMG]
     
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  12. Todd the Jedi

    Todd the Jedi Mod and Loving Tyrant of SWTV, Lit, & Collecting star 6 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Oct 16, 2008
    Nice to see another Alice Zhang cover. This one's even more impressionist than Master & Apprentice.
     
  13. EmperorHorus

    EmperorHorus Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2016
    Really? One of the stupider and most unecessary plot points of TROS and that's the one they choose to expand upon in a book? I was hoping the whole "Poe used to run spice herp derp" thing would be ignored. Oh well as long as it's well written and not too childish then it will get a tick from me regardless tbh. I don't have a particularly high expectation when it comes to new canon novels.
     
    Xammer likes this.
  14. Darth Corydon

    Darth Corydon Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    Aug 4, 2018
    just so people don't Ree all over again lets post Poe's timeline from the Tros VD

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  15. The Positive Fan

    The Positive Fan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2015
    This new information about Poe's past is honestly one of the weirder reasons I've seen for people to hate on TROS. Like, I could understand it a little better if it actually conflicted with established lore about his past or was out of character for him in some way... but as it stands now all it does is add detail, texture, and backstory to the character. Outside of simply hating TROS so much that you're willing to throw the baby out with the bath water, it baffles me why anyone would think that's a bad thing.
     
  16. Coherent Axe

    Coherent Axe Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 20, 2016
    I don't mind it, and I don't think it clashes, but there are some issues:

    Zorii specifically says he left the Spice Runners to join the Resistance, which doesn't work with the timeline at all. Personally I take her line as a "you left us and now you're hanging with these guys?!" thing rather than a literal comment on his timeline -- and also, she probably wouldn't know what he did after leaving, so to her he left, then showed up again years later having joined the Resistance. But even so, on the face of it it's not consistent.

    And there's also the unfortunate implication of retconning a Latinx character to give him a drug-running background. That's not good, and fairly ignorant at best.
     
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  17. sidv88

    sidv88 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 22, 2005
    I didn't even think about that. It probably flew right past Oscar Isaac too because I would like to think he'd have said, "Hey JJ, I just noticed you made the lead Hispanic character in Star Wars have a drug dealing past and I have some problems with that."
     
  18. Xammer

    Xammer Jedi Master star 3

    Registered:
    Jan 31, 2009
    Forgive my ignorance, but I never realized that Poe was Hispanic (but I looked the actor up now, yes, he's Hispanic).
     
    Corellia's Dream likes this.
  19. sidv88

    sidv88 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 22, 2005
    To be fair, Oscar is to blame for that in my opinion. Why did he not use his name of Hernandez or Estrada? Are there a bunch of other actors named Oscar Hernandez or Oscar Estrada running around? (Maybe I have to go check)
     
  20. Daneira

    Daneira Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Jun 30, 2016
    oh, yes, how dare he use a stage name that might get him more roles? half the casting agents in hollywood would see "oscar hernandez estrada" and then throw his headshot directly into the trash.
     
  21. Coherent Axe

    Coherent Axe Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 20, 2016
    Eh, the leads haven't exactly seemed...happy with the state of things recently. Hard to tell with Oscar, considering his dry humour, but he doesn't seem overly enthralled by things. It's also possible he might have said something.
     
  22. sidv88

    sidv88 Force Ghost star 5

    Registered:
    Aug 22, 2005
    Fair enough he needed to survive in a racist environment and i sympathize with that

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2020
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  23. Supreme Leader Woke

    Supreme Leader Woke Jedi Master star 2

    Registered:
    Dec 29, 2017
    In addition to what Axe said above, I find it unfortunate that Poe’s arc of confronting and growing past his hotheaded “flyboy” nature in TLJ is followed up by “well, he has a shady past, so that’s why he’s a little rough around the edges.” I personally find the notion that even heroes and well-intentioned people carry culturally-imprinted obstacles to their personal growth far more compelling. We already have plenty of scoundrel-turned-hero stories in Star Wars, notably that one guy whose canon backstory as a twenty-something smuggler was expanded on in a recent movie.
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2020
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  24. devilinthedetails

    devilinthedetails Fiendish Fanfic & SWTV Manager, Interim Tech Admin star 6 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Jun 19, 2019
    I do like the Disney is releasing more YA books, and I'm a fan of Poe's character overall. I hope for a good book.
     
  25. The Positive Fan

    The Positive Fan Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    Jan 19, 2015
    It's inconsistent for exactly the amount of time it takes to realize that if they haven't talked since Poe left the spice runners then Zorii wouldn't know about Poe's joining the NR after he left, and as such her comment as it stands makes sense. Frankly, Zorii knowing about Poe being an NR pilot would have been a bigger inconsistency.
     
    BigAl6ft6 likes this.