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.

Alright, I am WAY TOO BEHIND on current Star Wars novels, and it is just STRESSING ME OUT!! I’ve got FORCE COLLECTOR, QUEEN’S PERIL, DOOKU: JEDI LOST, CHAOS RISING, and I’m writing this on the release day for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW.

Oof. I don’t think I’ve been this behind on Star Wars books since the new canon reboot, and I’m also really hoping (for no particular reason) to have all the books I just listed read before THE HIGH REPUBLIC books (which I am ABSURDLY excited about) start coming out.

So, POE DAMERON: FREE FALL! Poe Dameron is kinda sneaky one of the more complex characters in Star Wars, I think. And while I definitely agree that some aspects of his story (and many others) were rather mishandled in THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, Alex Segura does some great work here establishing some pretty compelling backstory for Poe. I think it’s also worth mentioning that RESISTANCE REBORN by Rebecca Roanhorse is a critical link between THE LAST JEDI and THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, in terms of Poe Dameron’s overall character arc.

So, the elephant in the room is the fact that some aspects of Poe’s backstory, as introduced in THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, were problematic, at best. Many people (myself and Oscar Isaac included) shipped Poe and Finn. But it was disappointing yet entirely unsurprising that the promised on-screen LGBTQIA+ representation in the final movie of the sequel trilogy involved a kiss between two characters most people wouldn’t be able to name. Poe was given a prior romance with a woman, Zorii Bliss, in a way that felt like a garish neon sign flashing NO HOMO over any scenes with Poe and Finn. It…kinda sucked.

And in addition to that, we found out that Poe, the only Latinx main character, had spent time as a spice runner. Which plays into some very harmful racial stereotypes. Ugh. Look, there’s a lot of problems with THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, but I’m going to cap it here as these are the issues at play in FREE FALL. I want to say that overall, I enjoyed this book. But I couldn’t help but feel like Alex Segura was in the unenviable position of mopping up the mess from THE RISE OF SKYWALKER.

The early sections of this book were far & away my favorite. There’s a bit of a formula to some Star Wars books, particularly the YA ones. And FREE FALL ultimately follows that formula, but in the early going, this is one of the purest coming-of-age Star Wars stories I can recall. We meet a teenage Poe Dameron, living with his father on Yavin 4. Poe’s mother, hero of the Rebellion, has died. And Poe is left with nothing but memories, the love of flight gifted to him by his mother, and a grieving father with a tendency to be overbearingly protective.

This is a kid that is bright, emotionally volatile, and with a burning desire for…something. For anything. Like many teenagers, he’s bored. Restless. Angry. And so, the way Segura tells this story, it’s really not at all surprising that Poe just falls into a bad situation with the Spice Runners of Kijimi, a notorious criminal organization.

And so away Poe goes, off to find himself & find the adventure he craves. And in the midst of the chaos and danger that goes with becoming a smuggler, he and Zorii Bliss develop a pretty strong bond. Now, is it my status as a Finnpoe that makes the relationship between Poe and Zorii seem pretty romantically tepid? Or was it written that way? For…reasons?

Look, I can’t be sure. All I can say is there was more heat in that lip bite in THE FORCE AWAKENS than in the entirety of FREE FALL. Oof.

This is a weird review because I’m having a weird day. And I feel like it’s coming off super negative, and that really isn’t how I feel. This book is perfectly enjoyable, and actually had some pretty gut-punchy, and surprisingly dark moments. I just think the overall problem is that it’s impossible to look at this book inside a vacuum. There’s just too much weight to attribute to the relative disappointment regarding Poe Dameron’s storyline overall. And so even though he’s a character I quite like, it just feels like there were too many missed opportunities as far as Poe Dameron was concerned. This is ultimately a Star Wars book that falls somewhere in between “For completists only” and “An absolute must read for Star Wars fans.”

May the Force be with you!