Resistance Reborn is a Leia and Poe book. Rey is there. Rose, Connix, and Finn are there. But make no mistake: Rebecca Roanhorse’s love letter to Star Wars is a bittersweet passing of the torch, made all the more heartfelt by the fact that we’ll see Carrie Fisher as our princess, general, and space mom for the last time in the upcoming The Rise of Skywalker, and that posthumously.

The novel follows two main paths with a couple of digressions to let fans know that Inferno Squad (see Battlefront II: Inferno Squad) and its heirs have defected from the Empire. The first is Leia’s as she tries to gather her remaining allies, struggling to keep moving forward after her injuries in The Last Jedi and the loss of her close friend, Amilyn Holdo (Leia: Princess of Alderaan); her ex-husband but forever love, Han Solo; and her twin brother, the legendary Luke Skywalker.

The second through plot belongs to Poe, the heir apparent to Resistance leadership, who isn’t sure he deserves the faith his hero has put in him. Finn goes on a side quest with Poe and, whether or not it’s ever confirmed as canon, I adore how Roanhorse leaned hard (but still subtly) into #Stormpilot.

Listen, Poe does Finn’s tie at one point, that’s all I’ll say.

One of the most striking features of Resistance Reborn is that it continues the exploration of toxic masculinity Rian Johnson started in The Last Jedi. In the film, there’s a contrast between Kylo Ren, who is offered redemption but turns it down in favor of power and vengeance, and Poe, who makes a costly mistake but learns from it, listens to what the women around him are trying to teach him (even if it does take a couple of tries), and ultimately saves the remnants of the Resistance by leading them away from a fight they can’t win to survive until they can.

Resistance Reborn takes those reflections a step further. Having not yet forgiven himself, Poe has to admit to his squad that their dire situation, indeed that of the entire Resistance, is his fault. That he could have made another decision but didn’t. That he was so eager to fight and win he forgot to consider the consequences.

This is a huge leap for the franchise and mainstream media in general. We all love a flyboy with his head in his cockpit, but one of the reasons Poe is so compelling (other than Oscar Isaac being unbearably handsome) is that he has the potential to be so much more than a flyboy. (We stan flyboys, but work with me here.)

In choosing to expand his mind, he’s choosing the more difficult route. Not only does he need to learn to listen, he has to figure out how to short-circuit his own programming (something, I’d point out, the Skywalker men are notoriously terrible at). And after making an epic Star Destroyer’s worth of mistakes, he does just that: he chooses the more difficult path. He chooses to be worthy of the faith Leia puts in him and to heed her instruction.

How many space opera heroes can say as much? How many men, in fiction and in life, acknowledge the wisdom of the women around them? The experience those women have had? How many accept the tutelage offered to them by those women? Anakin didn’t. Luke didn’t. Ben hasn’t thus far. But Poe does. And unlike the Skywalker men, his growth doesn’t come in his final moments, in a grand sacrificial gesture. He earns his redemption through hard, steady work. There are setbacks, yes, but he rights those as well, even if doing so risks the trust of his squad – his chosen family.

Star Wars has always been an epic of giants and legends, and we’ve followed it for 40 years. The end of this part of the saga, however, leaves the way forward open for new stories – different stories. Stories about individuals. Stories about love. Stories about people. Examinations of ourselves through the lens of fiction so ingrained in three generations that we can’t help but pay attention.

Roanhorse gives us, in her Leia and in her Poe Dameron, bridges between myth and reality, between old and new. We see Leia struggle as she hasn’t since Bloodlines and for the first time, it looks like she may not make it. We see Poe try to fill her braids, fighting not only the First Order but also himself.

How can they win?

They same way we do.

Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse drops November 5 from Del Rey.