The Hammer of Gold is an Arthur C Clarke novel written in 1993 and set in the early 22nd century. An asteroid, Kali, is heading towards Earth and will wipe out most life if it hits. Captain Robert Singh and the crew of the Goliath are tasked with intercepting Kali outside Saturn's orbit, attaching giant rocket engines on it, then having the engines infinitesimally push Kali so that it misses Earth.

The novel is a bunch of short chapters jumping around from topic to topic. Some of them are about Singh and his life, which illustrates how humanity has changed in a hundred years. Other chapters cover SPACEGUARD, which is the detection network that found Kali. And then other chapters cover the mission and the plot twists to saving Earth.

There is little characterization and even Singh is not much of a main character. I guess because it jumps around there is also not much sense of suspense and the various plot twists are overcome rather easily. Overall I'd say not one of Clarke's better novels.