The novel consists of seven major parts, each containing several individual chapters, usually brief, and sometimes composed of almost fragmentary anecdotes or passages of description.

The Hammer of God displays Clarke's habits of generalizing rapidly through events of a character's past or through a century's social and technological changes, and of sketching characters lightly with just enough "qualifications" to suit them to a role in the narrative without offering much background or plot involvement to "round" the characters or produce significant change in them through the conflict.

Fuller character development seems to happen when Clarke works with a coauthor such as Gentry Lee.

Clarke includes historical facts and modern scientific hypotheses about asteroid travel and asteroid impacts on Earth in his narrative. In addition, when portraying Singh's visit to DisneyMars with his wife and daughter, Clarke uses an excerpt from Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles as part of the...