DominicCobb said:
I also question why Perry felt the need to create Dash Rendar. He’s nothing but a more cocky Han Solo, which just strikes me as completely unnecessary. Just because Han isn’t around doesn’t mean he needs to be around.

I think that “Dash Rendar” was mostly created and intended to be the central protagonist for use in the then planed continuing series of video games, and comic books based around that novel. A character that was not bound to the continuity of the films. That entire “Shadows” project was interesting and at the time of it’s release I collected the novel, PC game, book on tape, the book’s “Soundtrack”, the trading cards, and some of the action figures. There was also this, I found it a very interesting read