The Hammer of God

My reaction to reading this novel in 1998. Spoilers follow.

I liked this expansion of the short story of the same name. Its origins as a tale commissioned by Time magazine to explore life in the “new millennium” explains Clarke’s narrative strategy. Rather than the multi character strategy of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer (one of the Big Rock Hits the Earth novels Clarke mentions in his afterword) Clarke does a charming, old-fashioned (in a 70s or 60s kind of way), implausible travelogue of a world of plenty, mobile homes in the truest sense, tamed tigers, instant knowledge about everything, guilt-free and common bisexual couplings and threesomes and foursomes, and space travel.

The writing is breezy and show more very skillful – much like Clarke’s chatty autobiography Astounding Days – and suspenseful with an informative afterword about the scientific facts behind the tale. The plot of the comet being split in two, the Goliath sacrificing itself to save Earth, the large chunk missing earth and the smaller chunk hitting were all suspenseful and show up in the movie Deep Impact. Time said the novel was part of the source for the movie. However, Clarke was uncredited. show less

I love Arthur C Clarke for his superb world-building and philosophical narrative style, but the man cannot write a suspenseful plot to save his life. Ugh.

1.5/5

I'm going to put as much effort into this review as Clarke did into making The Hammer of God an engaging story with compelling characters and a tension filled plot. Apparently this is the germinal seed for the movie Deep Impact, and at least tangentially for Armageddon as well, though I'm hard pressed to see the similarities outside of the main premise: That an asteroid is about to hit Earth and kill everyone, so a group of humans are tasked with diverting it from its trajectory.

Reading The Hammer of God is more akin to reading non-fiction about the history of space exploration, optics, astronomy and other related fields than a fictitious novel. The characters and the plot, both laughable surface level, serve only as a thin veneer show more on top of a hypothetical exploration of how to prevent a disastrous asteroid strike. Clarke focuses a lot of energy on extrapolating future technology and science, and how that might affect our relationship to the universe, but couldn't be bothered to write a 'story'. I know that this was initially written as a short story for Time magazine, with that specific purpose in mind, but in no way did it need expanding.

Dry to the bone, lackluster, and pointless. The worst Clarke that I've read so far by a considerable margin. Rendezvous with Rama was similarly dry, but at least there was a mystery that held my attention. show less

This late work by the author deals with an SF cliche, an asteroid on track to crash into Earth and wipe out most life. I have to say that this was not my favourite example of that sub-genre. While Clarke writes with his usual fluency and hard science background, I felt that the whole was less than the sum of its (often very good) parts. The main character Robert Singh had a significant backstory, though I found the to-ing and fro-ing within his timeline a little confusing. There was just not enough plot, and not until the last quarter or so did the threat of worldwide destruction really come through. So, all in all, a little disappointing, though a quick read at under 200 pages.

Kali is an asteroid of epic proportions on a crash course with Earth, and it spells disaster for all the planet's inhabitants. Robert Singh and his small crew are tasked with diverting the asteroids path, but in order to get there in time they must travel light, and it's difficult to say whether such a small craft can move such a large rock before it's too late.

The book was originally a short story for a magazine, and it certainly feels that way when you're reading it. The core of the story is solid, and the end of the novel is particularly good, but it meanders about aimlessly far too often and feels like Clark is really reaching in an attempt to fill out the novel.

It would have made a fantastic novella though.

Read for post-apocalyptic book club.

Last month, we read "Lucifer's Hammer" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1672770288), so in keeping with the hammer/comet-impact theme, we decided to compare and contrast. (This one is FAR better.)

When I was around 13, Arthur C. Clarke was my very favorite author. I read and re-read everything by him in the public library. However, by the time this book came out, in 1993, he'd kind of fallen off my radar. It wasn't so much that my tastes had changed as that my life was a bit chaotic at the time (not apocalypse-level chaotic, but enough that I wasn't really tracking authors...)

The first thing that struck me on reading this was, "Oh, yes, THIS is why I liked Clarke so much!" I just really enjoy his show more writing style. He might not have the deepest characterization (like many sci-fi authors of his era) but his writing is just very engaging - full of interesting ideas and striking images while managing to stay consistently accessible.

However, I can't say that this book is Clarke's peak. It was expanded from a magazine article, and it shows. It's barely a novel, really. It has absolutely zero plot tension. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I've ever read a more relaxed-feeling, chatty lead-up to an apocalypse. The end of the world is louring, and Clarke is just like, "Let me go on a tangent and tell you something interesting that I was just thinking about." Actually, the whole book kind of feels like sitting down to dinner with an elderly Clarke and letting him just ramble on to you about whatever comes into his head. Now, that's not a bad thing - I would've jumped at such an opportunity!!! But.

The situation here is that a comet is approaching the earth. As it comes closer, it begins to look more and more likely that it will hit. Captain Robert Singh of the Goliath is the head of a space mission that will attempt to divert or deflect the extraterrestrial missile from our path. As I said, along the way there are plenty of tangents. I actually think my favorite part of the book might've been the bit about running a foot race on Mars - on its own it would've made an exceedingly fine short story. Does it really even belong where it is in this book? Not sure.

Overall - a good book, but not a great one. show less

Read for post-apocalyptic book club.

Last month, we read "Lucifer's Hammer" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1672770288), so in keeping with the hammer/comet-impact theme, we decided to compare and contrast. (This one is FAR better.)

When I was around 13, Arthur C. Clarke was my very favorite author. I read and re-read everything by him in the public library. However, by the time this book came out, in 1993, he'd kind of fallen off my radar. It wasn't so much that my tastes had changed as that my life was a bit chaotic at the time (not apocalypse-level chaotic, but enough that I wasn't really tracking authors...)

The first thing that struck me on reading this was, "Oh, yes, THIS is why I liked Clarke so much!" I just really enjoy his show more writing style. He might not have the deepest characterization (like many sci-fi authors of his era) but his writing is just very engaging - full of interesting ideas and striking images while managing to stay consistently accessible.

However, I can't say that this book is Clarke's peak. It was expanded from a magazine article, and it shows. It's barely a novel, really. It has absolutely zero plot tension. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure I've ever read a more relaxed-feeling, chatty lead-up to an apocalypse. The end of the world is louring, and Clarke is just like, "Let me go on a tangent and tell you something interesting that I was just thinking about." Actually, the whole book kind of feels like sitting down to dinner with an elderly Clarke and letting him just ramble on to you about whatever comes into his head. Now, that's not a bad thing - I would've jumped at such an opportunity!!! But.

The situation here is that a comet is approaching the earth. As it comes closer, it begins to look more and more likely that it will hit. Captain Robert Singh of the Goliath is the head of a space mission that will attempt to divert or deflect the extraterrestrial missile from our path. As I said, along the way there are plenty of tangents. I actually think my favorite part of the book might've been the bit about running a foot race on Mars - on its own it would've made an exceedingly fine short story. Does it really even belong where it is in this book? Not sure.

Overall - a good book, but not a great one. show less