Hope City

The Alaskan Adventures of Percy Hope

By: Neil Perry Gordon

Narrated by: Frank Block

Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Hope City is the adventure story of Samuel Rothman and his best friend Liam Kampen, two teenage boys from San Francisco, who, in the summer of 1898, venture into the goldfields of the Alaskan wilderness.

Warned by his father to conceal his Jewish heritage from the ruffians he may encounter, Samuel changes his name to the less conspicuous Percy Hope. This fateful decision gives a yet-unnamed mining village a new identity and catapults Percy into a world where the good and the righteous must face greedy and ruthless adversaries.

Along a waterway known as Turnagain Arm, the newly named Hope City and the more established Sunrise are like opposite sisters. The good and virtuous Hope, with a Catholic church led by the influential Reverend O’Hara, admonishes residents against committing the seven deadly sins. In Sunrise, villainous saloon owner Magnus Vega tempts prospectors with whiskey, gambling, and women.

Hope City weaves the tale of a young man falling down a proverbial rabbit hole of unexpected toils and hardships and struggling to find his way back out, amid a wild and unforgiving environment where ambitious men and women seek their fortunes.

©2020 Neil Perry Gordon (P)2020 Neil Perry Gordon

Excellent narrator by Frank Block

The story comes alive with the Audible version of Hope City - The Alaskan Adventures of Percy Hope

Adventures in Alaska!

Alaska, historical-fiction, historical-research, historical-setting, history-and-culture, adventure, coming-of-age, YA-only-means-no-gratuitous-erotica*****

A pair of young men who are best friends took the advice Jack London gave them at their high school graduation in San Francisco in 1898 and went off to spend the summer panning for gold in Alaska and learned a lot of life lessons. The characters are all believable and interesting, especially the Norsemen who practice the old religion (we are Norse). Lots of adventure with plenty of twists and surprises. We loved it!
Frank Block is a very good narrator but it is clear that he is not a voice actor. That was perfectly fine for me and the teenager!
I won this audiobook in a giveaway! Yay me!

Great coming of age historical fiction

About a boy becoming a man as he leaves home to travel to Alaska and find riches during the gold rush. Filled with adventure and moral dilemmas, he discovers who he really is and what he stands for. In this coming of age historical fiction.

An enjoyable weaving of truth with fiction

I really enjoyed the story of Percy Hope and his friend Liam, two young teens who traveled north to seek their fortunes during the Gold Rush days in the wilds of Alaska. From the moment they stepped off the ship, they were destined to leave their mark on the town in ways they never could have imagined, and learned, within the space of a few summertime months, that fortunes don't always come in the shape of a gold nuggets.

The performance would have been better had the reader changed voices or did something in a way that let me, as a listener, know that a change of character had taken place. I often found myself surprised that I was listening to one character when I thought a different character was speaking.