Liam, the characters were three-dimension, save that, they all the feelings and motivations of lead minature. But, that is always a problem with Gamer Fiction, unless you recreate and are allowed to go beyond canon.
So I herald the TNE novels as a first foray into the Undiscovered Country of fiction. Much as the Weiss & Hickman novels for Dragonlance. Only later did the quality of the fiction improve. But, the point is to get it out there and discussed. Helping see things in a story format, is what RPGs are all about...although the gearheads and rules-masters will disagree.
It's odd that GDW turned to a relatively unknown author to pen these works when, they would have'd the Keith bros and those people who scripted the gems (at the beginning of the rules books or chapters, as in Hard Times) in the MT products. But, I guess TNE was just too new to judge. Anyway, no point in diagnosing the disease from the corpse...
