I want nothing more than to follow Jaina as she struggles to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. I would feel cheated if MF picks up a couple of years later only to find out that Jaina has completely recovered from (spoilers)--

--killing her twin brother, her best friend, her closest ally. I hope that that is something that Jaina never completely gets over, and fundamentally changes her as a person. I don't wish to read about Jaina in emotional agony for the rest of her life, but I do want to see this change her the way it would change anyone.

If you say that you'll pass the word onto Luceno and ask him to touch upon the emotional healing that is taking place, I'll put my faith in you as I always have. But please, hear me out, I think you would be making a devastating mistake by not pouncing on the emotional potential the aftermath of Jacen's death would bring.

Sue--

Thanks so much for kindly addressing some of my concerns. I wish I could've reacted more positively, but I have a lot of respect for you for addressing the good reviews as well as the bad. It makes me feel like my voice isn't lost in the sea of fans.

jacen fan, how do you feel about jacen's fate?

and sue, thank you for the info. we are fortunate that you keep us in the loop. i also have some trouble with characters aging too fast. i mean yeah jaina will be probably what 34 when milinnium falcon comes out. its so fast. it seemed like we had more time with luke, but maybe not. and luke will be at least 61when the falcon comes out? man everyone is getting, old and sometime in the future we are going to need a heavy influx of new charactors to make up for the old gaurd passing, and will we even recognize this universe when that sad day happens?

Readers need to be able to connect with characters, and it's very hard to connect with, say, a father who seemingly loses his only remaining son and does not mourn for him, as Han will seem when we see him next in Millenium Falcon.

I understand your point-of-view. We did see Han's and Leia's struggle, and Jaina's as well, throughout the LotF series once Jacen turned into Caedus. They grieved quite a bit for their lost son in the series. Still, though, I know what you're wanting, and I think Jim will have to include some of what they're still going through.

I shouldnt have read that last spoiler, I didn't realize it was for the falcon book. I'm sure the suspense will still be there because Lucenos behind the wheel.

But the pain of it all is what makes it so interesting to read. It's cathartic. If people want a rest from the pain of it all, then they can hold off reading the next book until they're ready to dive back in. How do you think readers would have reacted if, following Mara's death, the next book had picked up a few years later. Ben and Luke may have moved on by then, but the readers won't have; to them, Mara's death would still be fresh in their minds. Many of them may be looking for some sort of closure following her death, but they won't get it because the grieving took place "off camera' as you said.

It's the same with Jacen. Readers, with his death still fresh in their minds, will open the next chronological book and find that the other characters have moved on.

**SPOILER

What?! Why would you skip over the emotional aftermath of the death one of the EU's most pivotal characters? "Jacen's dead, so we can move on and forget him?" All told, about fifteen pages was spent dealing with the main characters', mostly Jaina's, reactions to Jacen's death, and that's all we're going to get?

*It's more like two years in between, so Allana will only be 6 or 7. We're putting the gap in there so you won't have to read about the angst and grief our main characters experience after Jacen's death, etc. We want them to be able to recover a bit, off camera.
*

Ah, that's not so bad then. I was worried that we'd be seeing a Ben Skywalker in his early to mid-twenties or something.

Thanks so much for answering Sue!! You're the best!! Well, at least top five... Just kidding... you're the best! I love Luceno's novels. I also like the gap. I think it's good to have some down time as well to show that our heroes actually do have stretches (though small they are) of somewhat normal life when the galaxy isn't falling appart. The new book sounds great!

Sue, you really have me looking forward to you being able to talk about what's going on in the future. COMEON CONTRACT STUFF!!!! GET RESOLVED!!!!

Jacenfan1:(

It's a stand-alone by Jim Luceno and is set a few years after the events of Legacy of the Force.

Sue, is there a reason you guys (whoever decides on the timeline) set the Millennium Falcon book so far after an existing series?

The reason I ask is, it seems with every subsequent book, a handful of years always pass between them. What that does, IMO, is age our heroes so fast, that before we know it, they're old.

**SPOILER**

For instance, "a few years" after LotF means that a character like Jaina will be closing in on 40. It just seems like yesterday that she was a teenager in the Yuuzhan Vong war, and only 3 series later she's middle aged? Allana is 4 or 5 in LotF. Now she'll be 10 or 11. That's quite a leap in age. Will we ever get filler novels, to fill in these huge gaps?