The Fortress of the Lost Amulet is a fun adventure with a strong Indiana Jones feel and a great rag-tag group of friends. I particularly appreciated the author's focus on poverty and how the entire social system is stacked against the poor, keeping them trapped. It was well done and something I find unusual for a young adult fantasy adventure; definitely something I appreciate.
I also enjoyed the class clashes between the upper-class bully who thinks he can get away with anything and the lower class group who just wouldn't stop coming up with mischievous ways to show up the bully for the idiot he really is. Layer onto that the additional storyline with the real villain and it became very engaging. There was so much stacked against Peter, I definitely rooted for him right from the start.
A minor pet peeve I have with this book is the cinematic style focused on grand mechanisms and unexplained lighting in ruins that have been abandoned for several hundred years. As someone who's spent a lot of time in Mayan ruins, I just roll my eyes at this influence of the "spectacular" from movies like Indiana Jones and other treasure hunter shows. If the how had been explained, I think it might have been less of an issue for me, or if one of the mechanisms had failed. That would have been great.
I was also a little dubious about Kira's posh parents being quite so okay with her hanging out with the son of a farmer, a sailor's orphan and a parentless street urchin. Her parents made far too little fuss about who she spends her time with and considering the pre-industrial setting, it was rather hard to believe there would have been no repercussions to her unsanctioned activities once they were found out. But hey, that was a really minor bit, and didn't detract from the overall experience. It was more just the constant niggling feeling every time her parents showed up that they were so modern in how they showed their disapproval.
On the whole, I can recommend this fun treasure hunt adventure with a splash of magic and some fun puzzles in ancient ruins. It's fast-paced, has some good characters and great dynamics between the friends.
