I found Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (http://leanpub.com/hpmor) way more fun. However, it isn't finished yet.

I also liked Ender's game.

HPMoR is apparently nearing its conclusion, so if you start reading now, it may be finished by the time you catch up (depending on how quickly you consume books).

Read and liked them both, thanks!

Assuming you implicitly wanted to add "in roughly the same genre", the books that instantly jump to mind are Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books. The first one really feels like he asked "How can I copy the Harry Potter formula but make it better?" He clones the trio of heroes, but (for example) doesn't force them to sit around school waiting for a plot to show up, sending them out on a cross-country quest as soon as the world is established. For my money it isn't quite as good as the HP books at their best, but all are significantly better than the early HP books and tighter than the late HP books. He's into a second series of them now, and managing to keep me excited after eight books is no mean feat.

Thanks, I'll probably check it out. Wasn't there a movie about them recently? That might have put me off at first.

Roughly same genre, I don't know. Ordinarily I am not even into magic, but the odd fantasy book sticks.

Yeah, there was a lackluster movie adaption of the first book a few years back, and there's a second movie due out next month.

Hmmm... fun adventurous non-fantasy YA, first that comes to mind is Kenneth Oppel's Airborn, etc. Old-fashioned boy's adventure stories set in a steampunk universe.

Steampunk sounds promising, thanks :-)

The Flavia De Luce mysteries are quite fun (we listened to them on long drives).

Thanks, I read one of them and enjoyed it, although it wasn't an instant "get me the next one, too" experience. But I might eventually read the other ones, too.