I just want to compliment Fantasy Flight Games on a job well done.

Character advancement in this game has a beautiful simplicity about it without sacrificing a richness of choice.

The most painful thing about Dungeons and Dragons for me (or Star Wars Saga Edition) was when it was time to level up, or when my players needed to level up, and you have this huge tome of Feats, alphabetically listed, and you have to watch your prerequisites and see if anything strikes your fancy as you are sifting through so many choices, all the while worrying about picking feats that are redundant or don't make sense for your character or would cripple you in the long run.

You end up kind of going "well this or this or this would be good for that class."

Edge of the Empire does away with all that mumbo jumbo. The Talent Trees! They are brilliant, they are easy enough to understand, and they make your choices very clear.

A system without levels, with Career specific Skills and Specializations ... it makes advancing a character all the more fun to do, and planning ahead all the easier.

Anyone else feel this way?

I think about the same. I was glad not see a level system and that was my first fear about the game a levelling system is horrible in the star wars universe. It kills a lot of the imagination about your character, then again games such as Anima : Beyond Fantasy had a pretty decent levelling system.

And what's more with the trees, is that with time, you can make your character do everyone of them (ouch xp costs...).

but it offers lots of choices and possibilities.