Member David Brandt keeps a website devoted to Hard SciFi books (www.hardsf.org), and maintains a table of all the book-of-the-months read by this and its Yahoo Group counterpart.
At a quick glance you can see what rating was given by the Yahoo Group members, and thus get a good idea of the book's quality as judged by those familiar with the genre. His table also shows which of the major awards the book won. His table is here.
(Note also that if you click on the "View>>" link associated with any book on the Hard SF bookshelf you will get a single-page view of ratings and reviews of members of this group.)
At a quick glance you can see what rating was given by the Yahoo Group members, and thus get a good idea of the book's quality as judged by those familiar with the genre. His table also shows which of the major awards the book won. His table is here.
(Note also that if you click on the "View>>" link associated with any book on the Hard SF bookshelf you will get a single-page view of ratings and reviews of members of this group.)