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Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Hammer of God. Apr 29, Lyn rated it liked it. Sir Arthur C. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov — was still writing fresh and relevant, and scientifically exciting books in the 90s, almost 50 years after he began writing stories. While the idea that an asteroi Sir Arthur C. Set in the future, life on Earth had approached utopia with the advent of scientific and technological breakthroughs that solved most of our Childhood problems.
But when astronomers discovered a relatively small asteroid — given the name Kali — that was on a destruction course for Earth, plans were set into motion to save our planet. Stephen Spielberg bought the film rights to this book and with some significant changes, that production led to the film Deep Impact.
Coincidentally, or interesting depending on Hollywood insider standards, The Michael Bay film Armageddon also came out in Never content to just deal in the grand idea, Clarke also explores social, political and theological changes that have occurred in this future and how those settings further impact the plot.
Characterization is an element of a Clarke novel that never seems to get sufficient lift off and this trend continues here, but on the flip side, Clarke has no problem jumping millennia, centuries or decades to connect the dots and that is fun too. Good reading. View all 4 comments.
Jul 07, Althea Ann rated it liked it. Read for post-apocalyptic book club. 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 , he'd kind of fallen off my radar. It wasn't so much that my tastes had changed as that my li Read for post-apocalyptic book club. 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 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.
Now, that's not a bad thing - I would've jumped at such an opportunity!!! 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. View all 6 comments. As I began reading, I wondered how I had missed this novel back in the 90s. This was answered within two chapters, however, when I realized I had read this back in the day and just forgotten about it. The premise of The Hammer of God is drum roll please an steroid on a collision course with Earth. And yes, there have been several novels exploring this same premise and also a couple movie released in Singh appears to be a normal man of his times, and we explore that time through his life.
We are shown his youth as an athlete competing in a marathon race on the Lunar surface. We are watch as Singh reminisces about his first love and his first child being born on a technocrat controlled Earth of 3 billion people. From there, we follow Robert Singh to the colony on Mars, which is gradually terra forming the Red Planet, and we even touch upon his time as a bored space captain.
Eventually, Mr. Clarke gets around to talking about our ominous asteroid of death: Kali it is named. The narrative briefly describes the construction and operation of a special thruster used on Kali to nudge its orbit a tiny bit so as to make it miss Earth, and - since this is a novel, not a scientific paper - Mr.
Clarke throws several problems at Robert Singh and the crew of the Goliath to complicates their task and make it a more interesting story. All in all, this was a decent novel, but it was not a great one by any stretch.
Clarke writes at the end that The Hammer of God began its existence as a short story, and it probably should have remained one, because it seemed stretched out for no practical purpose except to relay more scientific information. Also, the difficulties encountered by Singh and his ship seem impractical and somewhat ridiculous though they did add a small amount of drama. No matter its faults, however, I will admit that the moments when Robert Singh contemplates his past and speaks about his first love and his first child being the most precious times of his life were poignantly written and did touch a chord with me.
View 2 comments. This is an especially important Clarke novel because its central plot is mitigating the threat of an asteroid impact. The prospect of such an event, which many scientists regard as inevitable, plays out as a subplot in other Clarke novels, including Rendezvous with Rama. But here it is what the novel is all about. While I felt this novel lacked the philosophical depth of A Space Odyssey or Childhood's End , I enjoyed the science in it and Clarke's concise approach to plot devel This is an especially important Clarke novel because its central plot is mitigating the threat of an asteroid impact.
While I felt this novel lacked the philosophical depth of A Space Odyssey or Childhood's End , I enjoyed the science in it and Clarke's concise approach to plot development. The man never drifted into 1, page novels that say, "Hey, look at all my research n' stuff. My favorite part of this novel is a speech describing the groupings of asteroids that exist in gravitational pockets on either side of Jupiter's orbital path.
Invoking a sense of Greek mythology, this speech masterfully depicts the shooting gallery effect the gas giant has on inner planets. Don't miss this one. May 22, Carl Alves rated it liked it. In The Hammer of God, a comet threatens to destroy human life on the planet Earth. Plan B is to use a massive warhead attached to a missile, which still may not solve the problem, only splinter the comet into many smaller pieces, which still may do serious damage.
It was a quick read, but at the same time it seemed there was a significant amount of fluff. Carl Alves — author of Reconquest: Mother Earth I enjoyed the book more than i expected, and was equally as stirred by the idea of very, very large mountains moving in our solar system which can bring more destruction than any nuclear weapon humanity has broiled up as of today.
Nature seems to always have the upper hand when it comes to composing weaponry. I especially liked the comparison of the protagonists and individuals of the story—as well as asteroids— to the heroes of the Trojan War, I thought that was a nice literary tip of the hat—do I enjoyed the book more than i expected, and was equally as stirred by the idea of very, very large mountains moving in our solar system which can bring more destruction than any nuclear weapon humanity has broiled up as of today.
Clarke certainly was a master of science fiction by the s and he did not lose his mastery of suspense. Aug 07, Ryan Stewart rated it really liked it Shelves: read-science-fiction-fantasy. Great classic sci-fi from one of the masters of the genre. This is short but profound. Another end of a year, another re-reading of a Clarke novel. It's something I find I do every year around Arthur's birthdate in December. The fourth book in the Rama series, Rama Revealed , was published four months after this.
He was yet to become 'Sir Arthur Another end of a year, another re-reading of a Clarke novel. He was yet to become 'Sir Arthur', which didn't happen until The Hammer of God was a novel expanded from a short story first published by Time Magazine in October , although it uses Clarkean themes from earlier novels.
Most noticeable is the idea of Spaceguard, the orbital early warning system mentioned in the first few pages of Rendezvous with Rama. In short, The Hammer of God is a disaster novel, telling of the impending arrival of an asteroid named Kali the Hindu god of death to Earth, threatening apocalyptic destruction.
The plot is told in about fifty short chapters, each rarely more than a couple of pages long. The story is mainly focussed around Robert Singh, who is the captain of the expedition to hopefully stop Kali before it reaches Earth.
Named Goliath, the plan is to gently nudge Kali using a pile driver so that it misses Earth. If this sounds like another Earth-in-peril story, well, it is. Computers are now part of everyday life, although as written from the perspective of perhaps not as much as social media would predominate today. Goliath is partly run by an AI, unsurprisingly called David, who has developed some quite human mannerisms. David is a much more personable version of his famous predecessor, HAL There are concerns along the way, but in the end it is a positive work.
When I first read this back in the 's, I felt that it was a lesser Clarke novel. And so it is. Whilst I would never claim it was a book written for the money — after all, Clarke by this stage in his career had no need to do so — it does use themes recognisable throughout his earlier work.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that similar material has been published before. Whereas once Sir Arthur led the way in fresh ideas and concepts, here I found it more of an accumulation of his favourite ideas at the time of writing, some of which have been used before. In short, it's a story that Clarke fans will enjoy. I enjoyed it a great deal and it reminded me of what a voice we have lost but, whilst entertaining, it is not one to hold up as 'classic' Clarke.
The climb to higher pedestals of scientific achievement has made man snug in his confidence. A confidence that erroneously makes him think that most if not all the challenges that nature throws at him can be averted by his technical toys. Let's now take help from a talented sci-fi author and fast forward into a technically much more advanced future. Mars and Moon have been colonized and man is perhaps at the Zenith of his technical prowess.
Now take one of the oldest points of terror of humanity The climb to higher pedestals of scientific achievement has made man snug in his confidence. Now take one of the oldest points of terror of humanity : a rain of fire from the skies and add it to this mix. What comes of this concoction is The Hammer of God. A meteor threatens humanity with extinction and a bold team of space cowboys goes out there to save all of us and that pretty much sums up the whole plot.
Dec 5th, Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up , it unlocks many cool features! Expansion of a short story published in a fall issue of Time magazine about the. In the year technology has cured most of our worries.
But even as humankind enters a new golden age, an amateur astronomer points his telescope at just the. The Hammer of God is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke originally published in Set in the year , it deals with the discovery of an asteroid to be on course to collide with Earth and depicts the mission for deflecting the.
Read Online Download. Clarke Original Title: The Hammer of God Book Format: Paperback Number Of Pages: pages First Published in: Latest Edition: October 1st Language: English category: science fiction, fiction, science fiction fantasy, novels, audiobook, speculative fiction, science fiction, hard science fiction, classics, space, anthologies, collections Formats: ePUB Android , audible mp3, audiobook and kindle.
Great book, The Hammer of God pdf is enough to raise the goose bumps alone. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Hot Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Hot Times Eye by Arthur C. Hot Imperial Earth by Arthur C. Hot Reach for Tomorrow by Arthur C. The Collected Stories of Arthur C.
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