I've read some of the earlier Nu-series novels (The Stone Rose, etc.) and found them to be quite enjoyable on the same level as the series itself. The multitude of original novels between 1989 and 2005 suffer from a lack of overall direction or creative control that a TV series would normally enjoy; this coupled with the innate ability for the Who franchise to accomodate practically every flavor of science fiction imaginable, has resulted in a VERY wide spectrum of interpretation of the Whoniverse.
Even with the so-called Cartmel Masterplan, which was supposed to completely retcon the Doctor into an even MORE Godlike figure than Davies' stories have made him, the novels never seemed to have an overall sense of direction or any sort of arc beyond a few novels at a time. They also seriously overdeveloped the Seventh Doctor (Time's Champion, anyone?) mostly because at the time they couldn't expand beyond the initial seven incarnations, resulting in a Doctor character so radically different from his origins (or even final season) he just wasn't IMO very interesting or relateable. The Eighth Doctor wadventures had less material to go on, but still resulted in many similar stories, which frequently (for him) involved memory loss or separation from the TARDIS for extended periods of time.
I was able to enjoy a few of the in-between novels, but IMO they've served their purpose. Give me more ninth and tenth Doctor stories, I say!
Mark
