The Faceless Minion

Information

Status

Ongoing

Year

2023

Author

Icalos

• Volume 3: Age of Monsters is now live on Amazon!
  May 13, 2025
• Volume 3 Release Notice and Stub Warning: May 13th 2025
  Apr 8, 2025
• The Faceless Minion Volume 2 is now live on Amazon!
  Apr 7, 2023
• [Not a chapter!] Incoming Volume 2 Stub Warning: April 7 2023
  Mar 24, 2023
• The Faceless Minion Volume 1 is now live on Amazon!
  Jan 20, 2023
• Incoming Volume 1 Stub Warning [Not a chapter!]
  Dec 31, 2022
• Afterstory 2 - Stardust
  Nov 6, 2022
• Afterstory 1 - The Hero Mexico Needs
  Nov 5, 2022
• Chapter 196 [Final] - And the Show Goes On...
  Nov 4, 2022
• Chapter 195 - Say Goodbye to the You of Yesterday
  Nov 3, 2022
• Chapter 194 - What is a Minion?
  Nov 2, 2022
• Chapter 193 - I Need a Hero!
  Nov 1, 2022
• Chapter 192 - The Faceless Minion is a Returnee
  Oct 31, 2022
• Variant Story Finale: The Adventures of Isekai Bob - Confronting the Dark Lord
  Oct 30, 2022
• Chapter 191 - The Battle of Time Part 3
  Oct 29, 2022
• Chapter 190 - The Battle of Time Part 2
  Oct 28, 2022
• Chapter 189 - The Battle of Time Part 1
  Oct 27, 2022
• Chapter 188 - To Save All of Time
  Oct 26, 2022
• Extra: Alternate Reality Timeline
  Oct 26, 2022
• Teaser Poll: Cover Art for the Spinoff!
  Oct 25, 2022

Reviews

Community Reviews(10)

• tortimisRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This series has proven time and time again that its able to take new and innovative approaches to the super hero and villian genre. Every chapter a refreshing breath of fresh air in an oversaturated market. Its unique perspective from a "minion's" point of view is absolutly outstanding. By far one of the must reads from the site I only wish they had a patreon so I could feed my addiction.
  There is never a dull moment with amazing character development. You won't be disappointed.
• HeralderRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Overall: The Faceless minion is currently one of the best books I have read on Royal Road. The overall story is fun, comedic, and light-hearted, with comedy focusing more on the premise than jokes every other sentence. Don’t expect the novel to be extremely serious, although there is some great emotional depth and character arcs, and plan on a little suspension of disbelief for the characters, particularly the villains (Don’t question why there are so many mad scientists that can end the world or why there are so many secret organizations). A lot of the major parts of the story have probably been created by asking “What would make this world even more of a mess for Bob the minion to complain about?”  Furthermore, I won’t spoil anything here, but there is also a decent amount of satire on a lot of tropes of different power systems, all of which create great comedy.
  Style: The writing style focuses a lot on side characters, with only a portion of chapters actually from the POV of Bob the minion. This however does not detract from the story. It allows the reader to experience what a mastermind behind the scenes actually does to a world of superheroes. A few other books that have a similar style are Overlord and Top Tier Providence, Secretly Cultivate for a Thousand Years, both of which are great novels I have read previously (If you want to find them just type the title and “light novel” after in google).
  Story: The story itself is comedic and makes sense. Each arc is well thought out and combine together without issue. The focus is on Bob the minion and his plans, both how they work and the actual ramifications of what he does. As mentioned in the style section, the story does have a large focus on side characters, but those chapters always relate back to Bob or provide better emotional depth to the side characters. The chapters focusing on Bob are the best (in my opinion), but every part of the story helps make them the best.
  Grammar: No major issues and almost no mi
• SkollseyeRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  The Faceless Minion is a great read. It tends to jump around and zoom out on the events of this chaotic super world, but everything is connected and interesting. I never feel lost or confused, as every transition and perspective feels meaningful, and the usage of specific characters like the guy from GNN is very well done. Strangely, even I as the reader don't entirely understand what is going on with the protagonist who is manipulating everyone from the shadows. Sure, I can make some guesses, like assuming he's either a super genius or has future sight, but I don't know for sure.
  It's a whole lot of different superhero stories wrapped into one, completely intertwined due to the presence of a shadow manipulator behind the scenes making things work out in the end. There are elements of comedy, satire, action, character growth, and more.
  No complaints. Very well done. Give it a try.
• SyndicRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  Ever wonder why superheroes always catch up with the villains?
  Why they always do so at the last possible moment?
  Why the villains always have an army of faceless, seemingly incompetent minions?
  How those same minions manage to build superweapons and pull off heists getting everything ready for the big evil plot, but then just fall apart or are nowhere to be seen during the big showdown with the heroes?
  And why the superweapon, flying fortress or secret base of the villain always has a critical flaw for the heroes to exploit?
  Reading this story shines a light on all this, and honestly will be my headcanon for the background of every superhero universe I'll read or watch from now on. I'll ponder what bob was doing for lex luthor, the joker, hydra, or whatnot.
  And beyond all that fun, the story even manages to have compelling characters and character development. I can only recommend reading it.
• YawriRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  I read all of this in a day. On christmas eve... EVERYTHING HURTS... but yeah in short do yourselves a favour and read the damn thing, it's an amazing read.
  the plot? fantastic.
  characters? i know them better than by family at this point... just yeah...
  grammer? nada not a problem
  well i'm going to bed now... i've been reading this for 18 and a half hours... and on that note merry christmas! It's 6:30am!
• bambacheRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  The Faceless Minion begins in a standard realm of superheroes and mad scientists, only slightly different than our own, with the primary perspective provided by the titular minion.
  Said minion, Bob, is a "mundane mortal," annoyed with the world being stuck in such standard fare, so he schemes behind the scenes to utilize minion manpower to advance or block the plans of others as he seeks out his non-standard vision.
  This results in (mis)adventures aplenty, as slices of other genres are sculpted to mesh with Bob's machinations.
  The narrative primarily has a comedic leaning as it deconstructs several of the scenarios that would have to happen to make such a world, but it is sprinkled with appropriate seriousness when called for, sometimes to the consternation of the author, who quipped about not having intended to give serious screentime to certain characters.
  "The best laid plans of authors and minions" alike are occasionally thwarted over the course of the narrative, keeping the story engaging from beginning to end!
• caburnRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  This should be the start of a theme, more sidekick novels. Icalos writes this book, perhaps not masterfully, but with the fervor of an uncle waaay too far into the story to permit objections or obstacles. I genuinely laughed reading about the adventures of just some guy getting in way over his head, if that's an indication of style. Not just snorting of chortling or anything, but actually LOL'ed. There are probably some plot-holes or some stupid little nitpick you could find, but the grammar is always excellent, and the characters are just blown out of the water with hand grenades. Everyone is given some time to take center stage, from minor antagonists to villains from ages past. His characters are the kind you could take out to an arcade and have a good guess at where everyone would be, who they'd be talking to and who ends up in jail.
  Overall, if you're looking for a read that you could write a documentary about, this probably isn't for you. But if you're looking for a story with characters you can laugh, cry and celebrate with then hop right in buddy and hold on tight, uncle Icalos cut out all the seatbelts from his van to spite the cops.
• LargeSwarmOfRatsRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 5.0

  So. I actually made an account so I could review this story because I felt it needed far more attention than it is currently getting.
  Now with that out of the way, the story begins with a pretty funny scene of a minion dealing with a spoiled brat. This minion then continues to have to deal with different hero and villain stereotypes in new and funny ways. Understandably this kind of episodic story would get boring after the first 10-20 chapters. However, the author allows the story to shift away from our main character and into the more robust and traditional lives of the villains and heroes that the main character is manipulating. Giving us an inside view and allowing us to either predict what the MC is going to do or be surprised by their involvement or lack theirof, and I adore this story for it. This piece is clever, it's funny, it's evolving past what the original concept was, and the world feels lived in. I highly recommend it. It hasn't gotten repetitive despite its gag origins, it's updating consistently, and you can see the passion the author puts into the story. Please give it a try.
• PrimrosianOfficer#273A83Royal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  This won't be in the shape of a standard review, but it's a good novel overall. However, there ARE some glaring flaws for me. For starters, some villians aren't that enjoyable to read. They seem quite shallow.
  Next, I feel like that specific person is used too often when the author writes himself into a corner, but sometimes it's played for a joke so I can accept it.
  Now, the biggest issue I can see. There's not enough xenophobia within the novel. I understand that people like hero's, but they don't get enough blame. Not enough corruption within the halls of the ILS. No matter how pristine, no matter how dangerous the situations, humans will be humans. Humans have scammed others despite the risk of utter death, and despite little PSI's little mind search, there is no way that she got everyone.
  Every day we see people blame the police department for not saving people, and I do know that the ILS can't be everywhere anytime. I feel like that was a missed oppurtinity, like some random girl dedicates her life to destroying the ILS after the bad side of the ILS does xxx against her.
  Overall, nice to read, but there could be some better parts to it specificlly.
• EldritchPastaRoyal Road

  ★★★★★ 4.5

  I actually started reading this simply because I abhor spoilers, and saw that Icalos's newest story would spoiler this one. There was the recommendation to read Faceless Minion first, and I decided to make the shot.
  Boy was that ever a great idea.
  The first thing that I always notice that makes or breaks a story would be the characters within the story. If you have a character with the personality of a cardboard cutout, it doesn't matter what amazing things or locations occur. Everything will be as flat as that cardboard, stale and tasteless (I do not recommend eating cardboard. It is not tasty.) The entire cast, from the short term people to everyone in the spotlight, every character is fleshed out. The have personalities, goals, thoughts, reasons for why they do this or that. Each interaction makes you smile, laugh, sigh, or want to yell at them, making you forget these are characters in text. Icalos makes these into people, not just plot devices and cliche line dispensers.
  Since I'm talking about it, might as well cover the other major part, which is literally the story of, well, the story. It is a simple premise, a minion who no one really can tell apart from any other minion, turns out to be the mastermind behind everything. Short, simple, and sweet as it goes for a prompt. So many ways it could go, so many ways you could write a story with this, and so many different perspectives. Yet, the entire thing starts out episodic, like you're watching a cartoon, with each beginning seeming like a different story. Interesting, but not good for a 200+ length story I think. Until it isn't just another episode, when you notice that things in the past did continue forward, that the "episodes" are now just slices of time. It isn't just a series, it is a book now, a story with connected events, people, situations. And that is just the telling of the story! To avoid spoilers, just know that the simple lowly faceless minion, the one of a million goon, does drive the story, hel