Her initiation complete, Maia is now fully bonded to her vessel. As the ‘New Ship’, she is about to be welcomed into the sisterhood of the Britannic Royal Navy.

The pressure is on to choose her appearance, though her name is yet to be announced. Her long life of service is about to start and she stands ready to meet her new Captain and crew.

As always, Master Mage Raven and the other Ships are at hand to guide and support her. All seems set fair, but storm clouds are brewing and danger lurks beneath the calm.

Neptune‘s realm holds many perils. All must pay the God his due.
And even Ships can’t last forever…
-Goodreads

Title: The Trials of Neptune

Series: Ships of Britannia #3

Author: E.M. Kkoulla

Page Count: 315

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Date Read: February 17th, 2025

Opening

The Ships of Britannia series by E.M. Kkoulla continues to be one of my go-to when I just want or need a fun, quick and easy read. These have all been short novels through at least the first three books now and they have been such a pleasure to read.

I began reading this series as a buddy read of book one . I'm not sure the shorter format was a huge hit with the group overall but as I had been mixing in some shorter novels and even novellas around that time, it clicked well with me. I have been spreading these reads out since I read book one Wrath of Olympus in 2023, book two Prey of the Huntress in 2024 and finally book three The Trials of Neptune early in 2025 here. I don't know if that pattern will continue as I would like to get to the fifth book before too long still this year.

Pacing

The pacing of this entire series has worked very well for me and book three was no different. There is a lot going on in book three with some big changes for our Protagonist and lots of characters to keep track up, but the author does a really good job in keeping things straight while also keeping the story moving along.

I wouldn't say the story itself is fast paced, but it can seem that way just because of how easy it flows and the fact they are on the shorter side for page count regarding novels. I think this is something shorter books can struggle with as things seem rushed and we lack the time to full flesh out the character, world and story but I think each of these have worked really well for me thus far.

World Building

The world building is another solid aspect. This seems to be both familiar and unique since many locations just seem to be a small twist on real world locations. I think this is another one of those things that help connect with the story in the fewer number of pages. It's familiar but unique enough to lose yourself in a fantasy world.

The world itself brings us some unique magic from the ships as well as the mages and deities. It's also a large geographical world that finds us following the story to several different regions on and as well at sea. There is also mention of other further lands that I wouldn't be surprised if we see in the series sooner or later. There is plenty of political intrigue with some dark twists and betrayal found in The Trials of Neptune.

Character Development

The character development was a strong point of book one as I mentioned Maia's situation has changed drastically as this installment gets underway. Her growth goes without saying throughout book three but there is also some more details given to us from previous characters that are still with us and some new ones. We learn plenty of points for our mages, the royals and other ships this time around.

Closing

I continue to look at each of these reads more as a whole for the series though I'm confident they hold up on their own, it's just easier for me to consider the shorter reads as a larger collection at this point.

I'd definitely recommend this series to fantasy readers who like plenty of Greek deities and mythology, a heaping spoonful of political intrigue and betrayal all wrapped up in a very magical world. I think the biggest polarizing aspect to these books for readers is whether the shorter format hits with you or not. For me and how I've been reading them as breaks from more epic tales, it's been perfect!

Scoring

Pacing 4.5 / 5.0

Worldbuilding 4.5 / 5.0

Character Development 4.5 / 5.0

The Trials of Neptune