Jaina is absolutely my favorite Star Wars character, and while Allston had no part in creating her character, IMO he writes Jaina better than anybody. In Enemy Lines, he was the first author to really get inside Jaina's head and sort through her reasoning of distancing herself from her friends and family, more than Dark Journey--a Jaina-centric book--ever did. I genuinely believe that Allston has a knack for writing Jaina better than anyone, which makes Allston my favorite author to date.

Again, Allston didn't create the character of Jag Fel, but in Enemy Lines he breathed life into an otherwise static character. It was the Enemy Lines duology that made me love Jag Fel; Jag Fel earned the nickname "Captain Cardboard" for good reason, but it was Allston that got under Jag's skin and showed us exactly why Jag is who he is.

*Darth Carl: Allston is one of the best writers that Star Wars has at the moment. He writes Leia, Luke, Han, Mara, Jaina, Caedus, all of them, as I have in my mind what their characters would be like. If you haven't read his NJO duology you can't exactly comment on his writing style.
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I've read all his works BUT Fury and the NJO Duology, so i think I have a handle on his writing style IMHO, feel free to disagree though:).

Like I said he writes some things good, especially characters, (like wedge), that he's more or less written from the ground up. I DO like his Leia, Han, Ben and Caedus, Wedge, Tycho, and a few others as he writes them. He just has some really bad moments too IMHO. I did say I thought his work was pretty good in other respects too.

Anyway this isn't really a discussion for here, I'll be putting a post on my thought on the LotF authors in the thread on that at some point, lets continue that discussion where it belongs in that thread?

Hi Sue. Sounds like a great view. Not sure I'd like Cali, but to each their own, huh. I got a loading dock & a parking lot. Good times. "Tailor". Duh. I guess that one went right over my head. So anyway, the Luke & the Mindor book is going to happen with Stover? That would be great. Shatterpoint is one of my all-time favorites & that's sayin something. I know Nick Rostu had to be modeled on Chris Rock. The exchanges were classic between Nick & Mace. And did I read right that Nick & I-five will be popping up in Coruscant Nights? And also, I am so curious about Darth Revan, just like everyone I'm sure. Maybe that will explain why he's the earliest (chronologically) Darth now. Thanx.

@Jeff, yeah I know, that?s why I specifically complimented his work in x-Wing and stated he's actually a good author apart from the consistency issues.

I just sort of wanted to explain why I anted to see an unimportant book first before they turned WJW loose on anything major.

Sorry for the rant, didn't mean for it to get so out of hand:(.

Do you think it would be a good idea to do Forces of Corruption as a novel? It could cover the game and then what Silri did afterwards with the Sith army.
Drew Kapryshyn (sorry if its spelt wrong) could wirte, as he did the script for Knights of the Old Republic.
And he'd be an ideal choice for a novel of both of those games

Anyway, my point is because of Allastons previous tendency to mess up character consistency, (IMHO of course), I?m not sure if DW?s consistency problems where down to Allaston getting it wrong, WJW getting it wrong, or WJW having a solid character brief for DW that contradicted Allaston?s novels. So I?d like to se another semi-unimportant book from him to judge his consistency abilities by, (honestly I though DW was good because it contained tons of back references to other SW book things making it HIGHLY consistent for me).

Anyway, sorry for the Allaston rant, just trying to explain my reasons for wanting an unimportant WJW book first, and got carried away a bit.

Personally I put the buck at Allaston?s feet. As I understand it we have Jaina going towards the darkside in SbS, then an apparently poorly written DJ that deals with her nearly going over the edge then deciding not to and starting back, then we have Allaston treating her as if she?s miraculously and totally recovered with no lingering after-effects, then we have DW switching back to her actually undergoing recovery and finally, (at the end), coming round more fully, (although still with daemons and what not that still plague her deeply in DN and LotF).

In my experience any character that he, (Allaston), hasn?t written, (or re-written in Cadeuses case), from the ground up, either on his own or in direct conjunction with another author, (like him and Stackpole on Wedge), is rarely portrayed in a manner that matches the pre-established character very well.

Sue maybe this is too early to ask but are you planning on bringing back Walter Jon Williams for the next book contract or even Tim Zahn? I thought Walter Jon Williams did a great job with Destiny's Way and I'm surprised he hasn't been brought back since. I think it would be neat if he came back did a hardcover novel in the upcoming Post-LOTF series. It would be fun if Zahn came back and also did a Post-LOTF book with Luke and Ben Skywalker.

Oh and a forum technical question for someone, is the 1000 character limit with or without spaces? I've got a REALLY long, (over 32,000 characters including spaces, and still growing), reply for the Fury speculation thread and I sort of need to know how I'm going to have to split it up.

Pretty sure it's with spaces. Don't worry about making 32 posts in a row, though --- I often do it after reading a book.

And yeah, Handoff would be great for the Allegiance paperback. Command Decision hasn't been reprinted anywhere either, though it's less relevant to Allegiance than Handoff is.

To Sue:

OK, don't worry, I know unpublished authors cannot be read or published for your line of books.

How does a published author go about submitting a book of theirs for you to read? Is it the author you speak to, or that person's agent? I am asking for someone I know.