By: Christian Corah
Descriptives
Page count: Hardcover, 384
Author: Alex Segura
Intended Audience: Young Adult
Timeline: Follows Return of the Jedi, precedes The Force Awakens
Main characters: Poe Dameron and Zorii Bliss
Brief synopsis: Having a dream of a life more than being stuck on Yavin 4, Poe joins the Spice Runners of Kijimi and gets more than be bargained for.
Gut Feeling
Personally, I thought that Poe was one of the less exciting main characters in the sequel trilogy. I didn’t dislike him, but his arc was all over the place and it was hard to keep track of. Free Fall certainly helps fill in some of the holes in his character arc, specifically for new plot points added to his character in The Rise of Skywalker. However, I think that the book should have given Poe’s character more depth. I would have liked to see more than just his life with the Spice Runners of Kijimi. With a larger scope, we would have learned more about Poe. However, his character wasn’t the main reason why I was interested in reading this book. I was really excited to learn more about Zorii Bliss. She didn’t have a ton of time in The Rise of Skywalker, but I loved what we got of her. She truly has the potential to be one of the better strong, female characters in Star Wars. She did get more depth in Free Fall, but like with Poe, I wish we got more. This will be a common theme moving forward in this review. However, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy the read. It was an overall exciting story that was easy to read. So without further ado, let’s get into the details.
Characters (7/10 pts)
Because this book’s purpose was to essentially provide a background for Poe’s character, I expected it to be full of character development. Mostly for Poe, but also for other characters like Zorii. What Freed added for these characters was good. We get to learn a little bit about Poe’s life before he left home and learn the most about him as a spice runner. I do wish we got more details about him than with this period in his life and as I said before, a broader scope of his life would have allowed us to get a better overall understanding of his character. However, there was a significant character-defining moment for Poe that helps out the score for this section. It was essentially at the climax of the book and you’ll understand what I’m talking about if you read it. I still wish we got more details on Poe, but this moment was powerful and I’m glad it was included.
I also think it is important to talk about Zorii. We do learn more about her, but a lot of it is through Poe’s perspective. She is a second main character to Poe and I wish more of the book was devoted to giving her character depth. Like with Poe, the content with her was quality, I just wish there was more to it. There was potential to make her a strong character in Star Wars, and I don’t think that happened. I still love Zorii, I could just have more reasons to love her. For all of these reasons, I am giving 7 points for the characters.
Writing Style (7.5/10 pts)
For being a young adult (YA) novel, I thought that the writing style was a bit too simple. It felt more like a novel intended for teenagers. Not necessarily in the content (the content fit what I expect for a YA novel), but just how it read. It seemed there could have been many details added to the writing that would have helped the story come to life more. Also, at points, the flow of the writing seemed a little bit awkward. However, I do want to note that this never really took away from the overall quality of the book. All Star Wars novels are well written so I am just being nitpicky here. This is just how I can differentiate between different books. So even though this book is overall well written, it felt slightly less than average for Star Wars novels. I am giving 7.5 points.
Plot (6.5/10 pts)
I was pretty disappointed with the plot. It jumped around a lot and was sometimes hard to connect what just happened to what was now happening. It really lacked scenes in between the peaks to give the plot time to breathe (pretty similar to The Rise of Skywalker). These scenes would have also set up the peaks better giving them more meaning. Without them, the peaks weren’t high enough. So for about 75% of the book, the plot was pretty weak. But the ending of the book, which is very important, was excellent. Like I said in the character section, it was crucial for Poe’s character. It also brought multiple character arcs together which made it the most exciting part of the book, as it should be. While I did enjoy it, I think it could have been a lot better if there were more details in the plot prior to the climax. The plot was one of the weaker parts of Free Fall, so I am only giving 6.5 points.
Intrigue (7.5/10 pts)
As I stated before, Poe was not one of my favorite characters in the sequel trilogy so I have to try and control my bias for this section. Naturally, I had less intrigue than normal, but I understand that if you decide to read this book you probably like Poe more than I do. However, there were still reasons why the intrigue for Free Fall was less than average. While there were many exciting moments, because they lacked scenes that gave them meaning, it makes it more difficult to get invested in the story. Also, it was difficult to know what the book was leading towards (it doesn’t help that we know that Poe leaves the Spice runners) so I wasn’t as motivated to find out what was going to happen. Even though I did enjoy the ending, the intrigue only started to peak near the end of the novel. What is working for the intrigue is the easy to read writing style. I could read much of it at a time with hardly any effort. This helps the score a little bit, but I am still only giving 7.5 points for the intrigue.
What does it add? (6.5/10 pts)
This is the weakest part of the novel. There is nothing really that Free Fall adds to the Star Wars universe that is significant to more than the characters of Poe and Zorii. This makes the book mostly self-contained. This makes sense because the purpose of the book is mostly for these characters, but it just means that it won’t score well here. It isn’t a deal-breaker for the book, it is just the truth. The only thing that I can really think of that adds to Star Wars is more information on the Spice Runners of Kijimi. They seem to be a significant part of the universe in the New Republic era. Also, their leader at the time was VERY cool. However, it still doesn’t really change much about how I view Star Wars holistically. I am only giving 6.5 points for this section.
Logic (+0.5 pts)
The Rise of Skywalker introduced us to lightspeed skipping and although it is a cool concept, it is difficult to wrap one’s mind around. Lightspeed travel itself is difficult, but there are plausible explanations like computers having to path out strict hyperspace lanes to travel by. Lightspeed skipping kind of throws that to the curb. But, through Free Fall, we do get an explanation for how this method works. For that reason, I am giving an extra half point.
Final Thoughts
My overall score for Free Fall is a 7.1/10, or a C minus. This is below average for books that I have reviewed thus far. As you can tell from the scores, there is no real strength to this novel and that is probably its biggest weakness. There’s nothing really that I can point to and say “this is what makes this book great,” outside of the defining moment for Poe’s character. I’d only really read this novel if you love the characters of Poe or Zorii. If you do, I don’t see any real reasons why you would dislike the book. But if you’re just looking for your next great Star Wars book to read, there are better options available.
I hope you enjoyed this book review and if there is a book that you want me to read or review, please let me know at christiancorah@gmail.com. As for now, I will only be doing Canon books (but in the future that might change).