The Bantam books are far from perfect, but I'll agree they're better than the books Del Rey puts out; the lack of the PT's existence during Bantam's run has something to do with that =D
The PT fanboys and their zealous obsession with forcing prequelisms into each and every era is one reason the Del Rey books suck - for me, at least. I can understand it if the story takes place during the PT timeframe, but anything beyond that is bullshit (the comics suffer from that too, though; it's not just a fault of the newer novels).
I will say, however, as one of many who loathes the New Jedi Order series, I did like the Yuuzhan Vong and their organic technology; a good idea that was realized very poorly.