105k words, complete @Ao3 by rinskiroo
Genre/What to expect: X-Wings! Romance! Cocky Poe! Mystery!
Rating: T
Pairings: M/F Poe Dameron/OC
Prior to “The Force Awakens,” Poe Dameron accidentally discovers a lost starship graveyard and an unknown woman entombed there. With questionable connections to the Galactic War, Poe and his comrades on D’Qar attempt to unravel hidden and forgotten secrets. Though cautioned otherwise, Poe finds companionship and the need to protect this strange, yet strangely familiar, woman.
Suitable for fandom blind readers? Maybe. Rudumentary Star Wars knowledge helps with background information, but if read with an open mind and a great deal of disbelief suspended, it would stand on its own.
Reviewed by: Tafferling
Star Wars and X-Wings. Oh boy.
It’s been years (and with that I mean more than a decade), but I’ve once nursed a crush on pretty much every pilot in Rogue Squadron, in particular after I got done reading X-Wing (The book series by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston).
So when I got done watching The Force Awakens, and failed to feel even just a tickle for Poe, I thought my days of flapping my arms around cocky pilots were over.
I was wrong. Or better yet, rinskiroo proved me wrong. She went and wrote Lost Valor; Forgotten Stars, and gave me so much more than just the thrill of X-Wing dogfights.
Poe smirked, “Just don’t want to be standing around answering questions when I’d rather be seeing lines.”
She gave us– wait. Hold up. No. This isn’t just about Poe. Quite the contrary. It also isn’t about X-Wings (except it sort of is), or about the Resistance (except again, it sort of is). It isn’t about great heroics (while very much being just about that) either.
Lost Valor is about two people. Euli Avedis and Poe Dameron. Individuals in the grand scheme of things, who find each other (in a quite literal sense, really) while the world ticks on around them.
Euli is introduced not only as a compelling and well layered orignal character, but also as a focal plot point to the the story. She brings mystery, and rinskiroo did an excellent job making the slow unravelling of her secrets interesting.
There’s life between those two characters, and through them we get to experience the Star Wars verse with all its nuances and flavours. Literally, at point, since rinskiroo has done her research and we even get to dine a little. Her writing clearly reminded me of how vast and detailed the lore is, and it’s done a great job at feeling like Star Wars, rather than a generic Science Fiction story.
We get a decent amount of techno babble, if you’d like to even call it that. It’s consitent and it fits into the narrative. The supporting cast is excellent as well, easily standing on their own, without giving the impression that they’re just here to faciliate the main characters. Especially Leia. And I’ve just got to mention this, because it does sit close to my heart: Rinskiroo has done Leia Organa right. There isn’t a sentence in there that wouldn’t have made me think of her, or reminded me of the amazing character that many of us had the honour to grow up with. Considering the recent loss we’ve had to suffer, what with Carry Fisher getting herself drowned in silver moonlight and strangled by her own brassiere, I’ll freely admit to almost. Almost, because this Taffer doesn’t cry easy. Shut up.
Anyway.
This piece is great. You should check it out. If not for the X-Wings, then at least for Poe. Because. Yeah.
“I’m a little stubborn, it’s a character flaw. I don’t have many, but there it is.”
I remember now how much fun it was to gush over characters like him.
Writing. Reading. Dreaming. 