Do you ever feel, with all the pain and suffering you have experienced and seen, that there is no hope?
I am probably in the minority that does not absolutely hate and despise this novel. Admittedly, I don't love or maybe even do not respect it (on that front, I am not sure) but I don't think it's terrible. For sure, there are worse novels (in my eyes).
While this novel is largely remembered because Andy Lane said it was the template of what not to do within the New Adventures, I lean more towards the view of Stacey Smith? who described it as a "historical curiosity". If this thing was published later in the NAs, its view of the Doctor (who is more of a piece than the chessmaster) might be as a purposeful subversion of Seven's character. Its tone prefaces the grimdark tone of Jim Mortimore and bleak (though not the comedic) tone of Dave Stone. Indeed, this can be viewed as a preface to pieces of The Book of the War.
Beyond this, though, the novel is... alright. The sections on Nicaea don't really have anything to do with the plot at large, the Doctor's reverence of Kopyion is... weird. In the hands of someone like Lawrence Miles or maybe Jim Mortimore or Dave Stone this would be a really good novel but Penswick is not as skilled (at this point in his career) as them. I do think that the biggest flaw of this novel is that Peter Darvill-Evans didn't give it enough time for its plot threads to congeal and Penswick to improve as an author. As it stands, this is just a historical curiosity when it could have been something much greater.