The Trawn trilogy was early '90s, and yeah, it was quite good. I think there was a lot of early EU stuff that wasn't half bad. There was also a lot of it that was total crap.It was fun because it was based off of Star Wars, and gave you a way back into that universe, sometimes with stories not even involving Han, Luke, or Leia. You could take what you wanted and leave what you didn't. I'd check them out from the library, usally two or three at a time, since some were ridiculously silly, if I started reading one that was crap, I could just put it down and grab the next one. After a while most of us learned which writers were worth reading and which ones were not.

So, I myself would not condemn everything post 1983, because I have enjoyed some of it very much.