Darn, I would really like to respond on this thread's topic but I feel because I came in later into the book series that I had very different expectations than a lot of you guys (and girls) when you started to read the books back in the 90s.
In general I just did not enjoy the Indiana Jones books. There were moments I thought were very cool but which I found the general storyline and execution lacking.
In comparison I enjoyed some of the Indy comics by Dark Horse a lot more.
Still there are a couple of books of which I can say that I liked them.
Like another poster here I also preferred the Max McCoy books over the Rob MacGregor ones. I did not even bother with the Martin Caidin ones after I read here and on various book sites that they were very un-Indiana Jones like.
I would like to be able to tell why I did not like the Rob MacGregor ones. It has to do with the more personal stories or human stories in them, sometimes about Indiana Jones himself but often about the side characters.
Quite often I did not find any of these characters that interesting at all that I really wanted to follow their threads and development.
The stories at least at the start also lacked any of the excitement of the movies. Later on MacGregor seems to put more action into it but it didn't work for me.
When it comes to which book I dislike the most then I would have to pick "Indiana Jones and the Interior World". I felt it was to fantastic even for Indiana Jones, suddenly having this inner world with its own human communities/tribes, internal politics, magic, some madman who wants to align with Hitler.
I know the idea of there being some hidden world inside the Earth was a popular theory or myth in the early 20th century but I just did not like this story.
The same kind of goes for Max McCoy's "Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth", it at some people becoming to overdone fantastic to the point I could not take it serious. (interesting enough I do like the Aetherium in Infernal Machine, go figure)
Not so much the part with the statues or the engravings in the wall that came to life to attack Indy and the others, but rather what came after it.
I think this storyline also shared some other similarities with Interior World such as Indy's memories of these places being erased.
Oh and there was this segment in Hollow Earth in which a love interest of Indy dies and he gives the main antagonist a speech that I felt was so un Indiana Jones like. I would have to look it up again in order to tell what it was.
Of the MaxMcCoy books I think Indiana Jones and the Philosopher Stone was the best.
Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs had an interesting premise but it never seemed to live up to it. I kind of had hoped that Indiana Jones would indeed have found a lost world with many dinosaurs.
I also did not find the antagonists that interesting.
Indiana Jones and the secret of the Sphinx was sort of the same for me, an interesting premise that lacked the execution it needed to be exciting for me.
I have also bought the Dutch versions of the Wolfgang Hohlbein books this year. I was not very impressed with many of these either.
Some of them I have not finished yet such as "Indiana Jones and the Lost People", but stories such Feathered Snake, Gold of El Dorado, and Secret of Easter Island felt underwhelming.
This is more personal but when I was reading Indiana Jones and the Ship of the Gods I was waiting for that flying saucer to appear which was previously mentioned on the book description here on the Raider and when it did not I was rather disappointed.
No, not that I wanted Indiana Jones to meet aliens. I more had hoped for a scene in which Indy and his companions watch as the iceberg breaks up and a flying saucer appears which then flies off into space, leaving the characters guessing what they just saw and how it was connected to what they experienced during the adventure.
Of all of Hohlbein's books I think Indiana Jones and the Labyrinth of Horus was the best.
A lot of the story was rather slow at times but I really enjoyed the revelation or surprise at the end when it was revealed that there a strange non human entity trapped in the labyrinth that sought to escape its prison.
We did not learn much about the creature itself but through its actions it was clear that having this thing loose in the world would not be good for humanity. Best not to reveal more.
I did get Army of the Dead despite a lot of the negative reviews on Amazon because it was an Indiana Jones book and I wanted to check it out. But I have to agree with a lot of the people who wrote the review because the boo was a slog to get through and I can barely recall any of it.
A shame because a storyline in which Indy has to face an army of resurrected warriors or an army of zombies could have been really awesome. Such a disappointment that Dark Horse never made Indiana Jones and the Dance of Death, I would have liked to have seen the Fourth Horseman and the zombies it created.
Indiana Jones and the Mystery of Mount Sinai was okay though some of it felt like a copy of Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis regarding the mcguffin.
One of the highlights for me was Helmut von Mephisto and his electrical bolt firing robot arm. Okay he is a damn over the top villain but after being rather disappointed with the previous antagonists Indy has faced he was a welcome change even if he is a stereotypical evil Nazi.
One thing I did find unnecessary was Indy dragging those kids that aided him in Italy with him to Egypt.
I skipped Indiana Jones and the Pyramid of the Sorcerer. That one was okay but nothing special.
Truth be told if Disney decides to declare all the books non canon (I doubt that they are canon to begin) I would not actually have such a big problem with it as long as any new books that would be written would be of superior quality. Otherwise it would not really matter.