Bartimaeus Trilogy - The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud

I was going to just listen to this a bit of it to see if my son would like it for Christmas. Now that I am almost done with the second book and listening to this first one again with my son, I can say confidently - yes - he love's it, and so do I! In one sense this is like Harry Potter, because it has a complete and complex magical world that coexists with a non-magical world in London - with references to places outside England. But here the magicians rule - at least in England - and they don't seem to be ethical or benevolent. The setting is current day England, as cars, phones and computers are used, but magic is more powerful than technology. Magicians actually don't have any real powers themselves, but they can summon various levels of spirits or demons to do their bidding. So our main characters are a young magician Nathaniel, who is apprenticed to a not very effective magician Mr. Underwood. He is smart and powerful, so he takes it upon himself to learn things and summons a djinni - Bartimaeus - a 5,000 year old spirit with an attitude. Great conversations!