About the Book
How about I borrow one of the reviews I have got on the Quadrilogy instead?
“The book is inspired by Linkin Park and gives plenty of emotions throughout the immersive read. the readers will be able to explore a cinematic reading experience while reading. The author weaves the story to pull the reader right from the beginning until the last page.
In the first series, the writer introduces the main character Tomas and his struggles to be a real man as he was skinny in nature and a boy who got bullied by society. His journey inspires the readers not to give up their goals until they achieve them. The first series is very capitative and I was glued to the story till the last page.
The second of the series is action-packed and gives a thrilling experience to the reader. The struggle between good and evil starts from the second series, killing Mike and the girl by Fok’s and in return taking revenge killing DI. The author introduces new characters to the story who became best friends of Tomas, and he starts the journey and finds justice which even can be paid in blood eliminating the dark world. The writer keeps the reader hooked to the story and twists the plot amazingly by increasing the curiosity of the readers.
In part three of the series, Tomas became a saviour to the USA, sipping the criminals who are untouchable. Thus, the missions he engaged were improved his ability to kill a man, sometimes in a brutal manner. However, each death mentally broke him into pieces. The plot moves fast with plenty of suspense to keep the heart-racing wondering what would happen next.
I was eagerly wanted to read the last book which is “You Did It to Yourself”. This is my favourite of all four books. The read was very emotional, and the story, brought tears to my eyes as Tomas ultimately sacrificed his life for the sake of justice in the country.
His fear is for losing justice in the system, not to his life. Also, the love of Helena towards Tomas is very heart-touching.
The lyrics in the Linkin Park songs nicely matched with each scenario and, I pursued to listen to the songs during the read. This book is a real tribute to the music band that captured my heart. I highly recommend reading this book and listening to those songs while reading.”
– had to cut it a bit in fact but this will give you a pretty good idea. Better than my book synopsis for quadrilogy.
About the Author
Just an Amateur writer that is a big fan of Linking Park Music band.
I have no desire to write any other books after finalizing the instalments of all four episodes.
Otherwise I’m bit of a movie buff, guns and cars enthusiast, history, engineering, trains, planes, ships, nature, space etc. etc. A typical guy minus the sports. I don’t watch or follow any sports, not anymore. A family man.
Oh yeah, and I am a little bit of fitness nut too.
Qn 1: Can you tell us more about your book What is it about?
I will have to borrow a quote that I have seen recently on the internet:
“The most terrifying force of death comes from the hands of men who wanted to be left alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it. They know that the moment they fight back, their lives as they have lived them, are over. The moment the Men who wanted to be left alone are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. This is why, when forced to take up violence, these men who wanted to be left alone, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror. TRUE TERROR will arrive at these people’s door, and they will cry, scream, and beg for mercy… it will fall upon the deaf ears of the Men who just wanted to be left alone.”
This pretty much nails it on the head. I can’t believe that how well it fits what I had in my heart and mind when writing the book series story-wise.
I can’t give credit to the author as it was a random comment on the internet (to something else), but another comment mentioned that it was a quote from Braveheart (1995) movie. I don’t remember it but perhaps it is.
Qn 2: Who do you think would be interested in this book, is it directed at any particular market?
Linkin Park music band fans. The whole series is a tribute made to their work to date basically.
The idea was that It would look like Linkin Park were making soundtracks to my books, instead of the other way around.
To them it should be that much more emotional experience – I would imagine, but so far I had very positive responses overall, including non-LP fans.
Qn 3: Out of all the books in the world, and all the authors, which are your favourite and why?
Bit embarrassing I guess, but none. I’m not even an active reader. I prefer movies.
One of the reasons why so many have commented is that it was more like a movie experience than a reading of a book. The whole writing style is unique and different to what they expected. The whole concept of soundtrack was new to them too.
You see, If I was rich I would have made a tribute movie series instead of a book series.
I did my best to describe what I had in my head listening to each individual song in relation to the story that I have created based on the lyrics of that song.
I wanted my readers to see (visualize), hear and feel what I did listening to those songs. As close to an actual movie as possible whilst reading a text. This is why the whole book was made around the soundtrack idea.
Because not only it was made to be a tribute to each of Linkin Park’s songs, but also so that the reader can listen to that song whilst reading the book and feel what I have felt writing that particular tribute-passage through the emotion expressed within the song itself, for much stronger, better overall reading experience. Almost movie-like.
Qn 4: What guidance would you offer to someone new, or trying to enhance their writing?
The wrong person to ask, I’m not even a real writer. (Well, now I guess I am.)
But, as with everything, writing is also a learning process. In the five years that it took me to finish all four books, I have improved my writing naturally through experience – of writing.
But the best thing I have done, which would be the best advice I can give – Is to give your final product to professional editors for polishing. It can get costly but worth the money for sure.
It was a night and day reading experience, so much easier, better flowing read after.
Qn 5: Where can our readers find out more about you, do you have a website, or a way to be contacted?
Hmm, not really. I am a nobody really, but I do have a fan page on FB and have a small YouTube channel that is related to movies. (I do small written reviews along with posting my favourite scenes.)
You can check it out here – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzAaUJY_WPjUpeCNxFD8lQg
Plus my book pages on FB and Goodreads –
https://www.facebook.com/LinkinParkTributeSeries
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17740863.Tomas_Cudzis
Qn 6: This book is a collection of all four parts of The Struggle for Justice and Truth, a fanfiction dedicated as a tribute to Linkin Park’s music. Which songs have had the most impact on your work?
I love all of their work really. That’s why it was the goal to use every single of their songs leaving nothing out and make it into a story from the very beginning. If there was an LP tribute book series out there and my favourite song wasn’t included, I as a fan would be disappointed.
Well, since I made a tribute section for every single song, it can’t happen. Every fan will find his favourite song(s) somewhere within my book series.
That being said, each of the books had a dominant song(s) around which the storyline was for the most part built.
For part one: Becoming you…; it was Figure.09:
The lyrics are: “And now you’ve become a part of me – You’ll always be right here.
You’ve become a part of me – You’ll always be my fear.
I can’t separate – myself from what I’ve done.
Giving up a part of me, I’ve let myself become you!
It never goes away…”
It was the moment of no return. The main character killed an evil man in what could be described as self-defence by others, but he knew it was really his anger towards evil people in general that made him “snap” and kill the man (that was trying to kill the main character at that time). His biggest regret will become a dominant theme in the last book of the series as well.
For part two: Me the animal takes control; the most dominant theme was the lyrics of Nobody’s Listening:
“Tried to give you a warning, but everyone ignores me!
Told you everything loud and clear – but nobody’s listening!
Called you so clearly, but you don’t want to hear me – told you everything loud and clear!
But nobody’s listening…”
When the main character realizes that the triads will never stop hunting him as long as he lives. So he had no other choice but to take on them or die trying. Kill them all, or try to hide living in isolation and fear forever. Not an option, he would rather die.
For part three: Pushed the right way… ; it would be In the end:
“I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter. I had to fall To lose it all, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter.”
Tomas is now in the position of the hunter and together with his new team is hunting down “untouchable” (by the legal system) criminals one by one as a vigilante. However, it cost the life of one of his teammates, his best friend in a coma and the rest narrowly escaped death themselves including the main character Tomas, for nothing to really change after, everything went back exactly the same as it was before. Former untouchable criminal that they had “taken down” got replaced by another untouchable criminal who was waiting in line for his chance. Tomas realizes that this vigilante stuff is a futile fight that ultimately only brings pain to him and his loved ones.
For part four: You did it to yourself!!!; it would be Crawling:
“There’s something inside me that pulls beneath the surface – Consuming, confusing.
This lack of self-control I fear is never ending – Controlling,
I can’t seem – to find myself again, my walls are closing in.
I’ve felt this way before – So insecure.
Crawling in my skin – These wounds, they will not heal!
Fear is how I fall, confusing what is real…”
Once again Tomas has no choice but to take action. Knowing this is a futile fight that only brings pain, he does it as a lone wolf isolating himself completely from his family and loved ones.
His biggest regret, killing of the DI in the first part, launching all of what had happened after into motion and becoming ultimately the DI himself, is haunting him so much that Tomas later develops split personality and is experiencing actual hallucinations of seeing and hearing the DI he killed. The DI taunts and laughs at Tomas along his way. It’s a story of excruciating inner struggle and suffering.
Qn 7: Do you draw inspiration from any other sources for your book?
Sure, as a movie buff, there is a lot of inspiration from movies Equilibrium (2002), Batman Begins (2005) and John Wick (2014).
Equilibrium was a very unique and emotional movie. Every scene heavy strong undertone/meaning. The main theme also is how much violence is too much? Can it be even used for the good at all? Once you cross that line, no matter whether you kill all of the “monsters” of the world, there would be one more monster left to kill -> yourself.
Also, I like the idea of gun-kata; martial art gun-mastery. It’s present in the books. From Batman Begins,
It was all of the vigilante stuff. Just a man with really fancy toys that no one else has that along with his exceptional training and physical superiority is pretty much making him unstoppable (part three and onwards), keeping him alive. I liked how they tried to make Batman “realistic”. The same way I did my best in my books and everything, even the otherwise unbelievable stuff will have a logical explanation. Also, most of the combat is realistic with lots of details added on how it all works. Guns, martial art etc.
Ok, let me give you an example:
“But by that time, Gargy managed to switch up into anti-material high-explosive
incendiary/armour-piercing rounds or Raufoss NM140 MP rounds, to be specific, and took a
shot at the driver’s-side back wall through the opened-up back door that separated the driver’s
a compartment from the storage area.
All that Gargy was able to observe was a flash at the point of impact before the car suddenly came to a stop, but from the front side of the car, the public and the police engaging it saw the front windshield suddenly getting painted red. The shrapnel coming from the armoured back wall behind the driver, plus the round itself that exploded immediately after impact, shredded the robber into pieces, leaving his upper body an unrecognizable pile of shredded, and at some places burning, meat. Quite gruesome.”
A scene where Tomas’ buddy Gargy who’s a sniper, is supporting him from distance. (4th book.)
From John Wick, I took almost no inspiration along the way since this came after I already had the storyline in my head for a long time (but not yet on paper). But it is the closest to what you can expect Tomas to be like in action. He’s a killer and a damn good one, no denying that, but you will be still routing for him and sympathizing with him. Especially because he doesn’t want to do what he is ultimately always forced to do, giving him no other choice. Except for the part that Tomas had a lot of inner emotional issues with what he was doing, severe PTSD and pretty much driven him mad at the end. You wouldn’t see that in John Wick.
Qn 8: Have you encountered any challenges when writing Tomas Cudzis and the Struggle for Justice and Truth?
Yes, a lot really. Because of the number of songs that was immense, 159 in total, to be exact (but who’s counting?), the number of lyrics that would generate a storyline was too large for me to prearrange perfectly into a fully pre-prepared whole storyline to hold all in my head before writing it all down. Also, due to me writing it only as a hobby and fan-made tribute to Linkin Park in my spare time, it took me, all in all, five years. So, you can imagine that I had forgotten many times what my original “agenda” for any of the particular songs was, and in which direction it would progress the whole storyline in the end.
I only remembered that the original basic idea was to tell a story of someone who wanted to become Batman, becoming one, only to find himself changing into a Joker later down the road due to the very basic nature of vigilante’s work – use of force/violence – that in its essence is evil. I played with the idea of how much one can be exposed to, even if used for a noble cause, before ultimately turning into a monster himself due to it.
Qn 9: Your book only references the songs that could be played during certain parts of your book. How would you describe the experience of listening to the songs whilst reading vs not listening?
It’s hard to tell for me. It is experimental in nature since to my knowledge this is the first book like this ever. Also, the fact that I of course knew all of the songs by heart already anyway, their emotion. It was the emotion of the song that I tried my best to capture in the text I have written, and the storyline I have created for that specific song.
What I can tell you with absolute certainty though is that every single person that had tried to listen to the song along the way, found it an extremely more engaging experience. Some downright admitted it did push them into tears on certain parts, or keep their blood pumping on others. Exactly what I had hoped for, why the songs are there in the first place.
In the intro to my book I state:
“In a text, there is hardly any emotion. All your emotional responses are based
on your own imagination of what you read.
Therefore, everyone can have a different – I should say, unique – response, for better or worse,
based on your own mental imagery capability and your personal traits.
I cannot make you see what I want you to see. I cannot put in your head the sounds that I would
like you to hear as you read my book. But I believe that through those songs that I carefully
selected, I can encourage you to feel what I intended to express when writing that part of the
story; what I felt and imagined while listening to the song. Not to prescribe or script, but to
improve your overall experience.”
All that being said though, I would like to believe that the story alone is interesting enough to have an emotional response to it regardless. I just believe with listening to the songs as well, you will bring that experience to another level.
Qn 10: What do you plan to do next? Do you plan to write more in this series, or have plans for anything else?
I don’t plan to write anything really. There is another story or two in my head already. But each of them would be the same project in size as this one (at least 5 years in length writing it on the sides in free time), too exhausting really and not that important to share either.
I’m extremely happy with what I have here, and with this one, I felt like I need to write it. To give back to Linkin Park as my thank you to them, after Chester had died in 2016. I knew it was their end, basically.
These tribute series are still in their nappies anyway, with barely anyone knowing about them at all. I finished the last part only this year along with the quadrilogy version. The books themselves got polished by professional editors just recently in October. I’m focusing on trying to promote the books best I can to share my passion for LP with the world. I’m thankful that so far it seems like I have done well, and the books are nothing that the LP once finding of them themselves (if ever) should feel like they want to distance themselves from. I think they would like it.
Who knows, this could very well be a movie one day, or an LP musical!
I would love to see that.
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