The Spring 2023 Light Novel Guide

A Cave King's Road to Paradise: Climbing to the Top with my Almighty Mining Skills!

What's It About? 

In a world where crests decide one's fate, Prince Heale is born with Cave King—a crest just as worthless as he is. Deemed a disgrace to his family, he's exiled to a barren, deserted island with not a plant nor soul in sight. Alone, miserable, but determined to survive, he reaches for a pickaxe to expand the cave he intends to make his new home—and discovers the true power of his crest!

It turns out Cave King makes cavern mining as easy as breathing. And as Heale digs deeper into the island, he discovers one otherworldly mineral after another. Who's worthless now?

But valuable ore isn't the only thing Heale finds on his mining adventures. He soon befriends slimes and saves goblins that wash ashore. And together as one big family, they'll work to overcome any challenge on the road to developing the island into their own little paradise.

A Cave King’s Road to Paradise: Climbing to the Top with My Almighty Mining Skills! has a story by Hajime Naehara, and art by Hatori Kyoka. English translation by Zihan Gao. J-Novel Club, $7.99 digital. Available now.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Poor Heale. It's not so much that his magic crest "Cave King" is useless as it is that his family doesn't understand it and deems it to be so. It would be easier for him to swallow if he had not been banished, or granted dominion over a remote island that's a shoal. Heale is 99.99% certain that he's doomed to die on a rock in the middle of the ocean until he realizes that his blessing is just that: the minute he picks up a pickaxe, he discovers that he can mine, identify rocks and minerals, and perform all sorts of rock-related tasks. It's not a novel concept, but it works, and it's easy-going fun. It's also worth mentioning that, unlike the manga adaptation, it doesn't rely on status screens at all – Heale hears a magic voice in his head that tells him stuff. While there's a total lack of RPG stats and menus, it's still a more palatable way to approach the genre.

That's not to say it's without issues, of course. Heale's companions are all classified as “monsters,” even the humanoid, highly-intelligent ones. It's one thing for him to tame Taran the giant spider or Ciel the slime, but it starts treading on the tricky ground when he “tames” his love interest, the goblin princess Riena, who “evolves” into a human and retains her tamed status. In Heale's defense, he doesn't do anything about it, and he never treats Riena or any other goblins as anything less than human. It's still uncomfortable and unnecessary to the book. Surely, there could have been a better way to help the goblins master their skills. On the plus side, Starkers—the naked dwarf Heale accidentally brings back from the dead—isn't a tamable creature and is a delightful burst of total insanity as he runs wordlessly through the novel. The book seems to be working towards a message about everyone being worthwhile, whether they're monsters or people. I'd definitely recommend the novel over the manga because it goes into better detail, and the color art is gorgeous. However, it's just a pleasant read, issues notwithstanding.