Lit Books Poe Dameron: Free Fall by Alex Segura

I reread parts of Free Fall, and I kind of feel like this novel made Poe's spice runner past both better and worse. Better, because he had no idea what he was getting into and spent the whole novel trying to get out of it and worse, because he basically abandoned his dying father for a girl who was borderline emotionally abusive and controlling. (Thankfully, unlike Kyle Ron, Zorii grew out of it) If Kes died from that poisonous Lurker bite, that makes Poe indirectly responsible for his father's death, and he died thinking his son abandoned him! Uuuggghh! I can't BELIEVE DIsney/LF did this to Poe.

 

I just thought of something: Fontis, the devarronian bartender overheard the Spice Runners of Kijimi talking about needing a new pilot, then Poe walks in, and Fontis yells for the whole cantina to hear "Well, if it isn't the best pilot on Yavin 4!". He knew the spice runners were trouble and he still basically hands young and naive Poe over to them on a silver platter? Considering how young Poe was, that was incredibly irresponsible! Plus, he basically stonewalled Kes and L'ulo when they questioned him about where Poe was and banned Kes from ever coming to his bar again. That was really weird to me. Either Fontis is shady and secretly working for the First Order (and since the FO went after former Rebels and their families post-Endor) and purposefully put Poe at risk, or he's an unwitting instigator of doom.

 

Considering how dumb Poe is through this entire book, we can't rule out head injuries messing up his perception of time

 

Sadly, this easily takes the prize for worst YA book when I've greatly enjoyed just about all the others over the last few years.

The biggest problem is the book sets things up but then doesn't follow through on them, instead leaving entire plot threads hanging, apparently to be answered by reference book, when their being resolved here would make for a far better book.

Spoiler

For instance, there's this big stand-off with Poe and his father in the middle, where Poe says they need to go and it sounds like it'll all be followed up on later, it isn't. Zorii starts a duel with her psychopath mother and the result is? We never find out. There's a lacking sense of care in the last part of the book. Zorii goes from saying she knows Poe to then believing he'll help her in a spot of mass murder.

After reading this book, it's hard not to think that the Final Order did the galaxy a favour by blasting Kijimi apart.

 

The ending felt very rushed. I wonder if Alex was hit by time constraints, because it feels like first draft stuff. The silliness of Trune blasting a ditch in the ground that apparently none of the hardened criminals could overcome, and those criminals deciding to just stand and gawp at a string of melee fights between their leader and various other characters. Didn't BoShek and the rest have their ships blown up by Zeva's cannons? -- yet afterwards they're all rushing to their ships to escape. No follow-through on the Kes plot line. And the last scene felt entirely shoehorned in. "Poe's inspired by Leia, suddenly!"

Trune never clicked for me. I didn't get the sense she was driven by revenge until the book told us she was halfway through. And a lot of the writing seemed...haphazard. Several times we seemed to jump forward a month, but then spend a page or so going back to what had happened in the intervening time anyway. Just write it chronologically, then!

That said, I did like leaving the Zeva/Zorii duel unresolved. Did Zorii kill Zeva? We might assume so, considering she takes up the leadership, but I like the not knowing at the minute, and that we only know as much about it as Poe does. There were some nice details along the way, and always good to get expanded lore on this era, even if a fair bit of it was a bit of a grab-bag of Legends references. It sure felt like Alex rummaged around the smugglers category on Wookieepedia for some random Galaxies NPCs.

And yes, Wookieepedia's wrong to lean on the Visual Dictionary's date rather than the exact timeline laid out in the novel. He clearly leaves the Spice Runners about a year later, then takes his time getting back home for whatever reason. Hopefully that and the lack of an actual reunion scene with Kes means there's more story to be told.

 

I too, I think, will for now assume Poe spent only one or two years in the group (if at very least only for One Canon reasons - wink - regarding how long he spends getting into the Republic fleet, among others)
Still interested to read the book, preferably in paperback, the moment lock-down lift, or a good supplier can order out where I can reliably pick up a copy. Wish it were a bit more even than it is, given what I've heard of it, though.
Poe's definitely allowed a hot-head/headstrong period of his own, but I think reading too much into any of that for TLJ would be forced, at best, given how messed up that whole situation was for all involved (not to mention Poe being proved essentially right - the dreadnought would have blasted them during the chase, if not taken out earlier - verisimilitude not withstanding; plus the mutiny snafu)

 

So...we gonna get a sequel to Poe Dameron: Free Fall or what?

There are still a few loose threads:

-Kes' fate

-Zeva and Zorii's fight

-How Poe was allowed anywhere near the New Republic Navy

Actually, if written well, it could be an inspiring story about how someone can rebuild their life after ruining it and repairing his relationships. You could even have Zorii be the B story and maybe some Zeva loyalists wanting revenge on Poe for ruining Zeva's plan and getting her killed. I mean, the story writes itself.

 

*Snort - that's a good observation.

I might've enjoyed this book except for one glaring issue. I feel that Alex was given a word count that he had to fulfill - or page count, so he went back into the text, did a word search and EVERY time Poe's first name was written out - he had to put Dameron after it. Poe Dameron did this, Poe Dameron felt this... around the corner arrived Poe Dameron. Oh my god STOP already we know Poe's last name you do NOT need to have it 4-5 times on a page.

It was so freaking irritating and invasive through the whole book that this was my least favorite of all of the new canon books that I've read so far.

[/rant over]

 

Groan. Great. Well, hopefully there'll be a comic.

I know, right? He could have saved up the words for a short epilogue about what happened with Zorii and Poe afterwards.
"Zorii's battle with her mother left Zorii victorious and the new leader of the Spice Runners of Kijimi. She had just enough affection for Poe to not send her men to hunt for him for punishment.
Poe returned to Yavin 4 to find his father survived the poisonous Lurker. Kes welcomed him back with open arms and he was exonerated of all charges. He spent a year on Yavin 4 to help out with the farm, and with Kes' blessing, joined the New Republic Navy."
Short, but to the point.

 

That would've been lovely...or given us some sort of prologue...ANYTHING other than repeating his full name over and over and over again.

 

They tend not to do direct sequels to Star Wars books anyways very often unless it is announced at the beginning that it is going to have more than one book.

What they tend to do is carry a character or plot thread over to an entirely new book that they are doing.

 

Well, then they really should have added an epilogue, then.