The books have too much good stuff to just dismiss them so offhandedly. heck who knows one day when Lucasfilm needs to fill up the old bank account alot of them may get the movie treatment

They're the literary equilivent of a sitcom. They may have recognizable characters and a few cheap thrills, but they're void of true originality. It's 100% derivative. Such is the nature of this sort of glorified fanfic.

I suppose I did come down a bit hard, though. There's always room for some junk food for the soul and I guess reading material is really no exception to that.

Hardly proof that they're worthwhile in a literary sense.