Sudden and surprising act, raid, many initially upset (8)
I believe the answer is:
dramatic
'sudden' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'act raid many initially upset' is the wordplay.
'many' becomes 'M' (Roman numeral for a thousand).
'initially' means one lot of letters go next to another (some letters go before others).
'upset' is an anagram indicator.
'raid'+'m'='raidm'
'act' after 'raidm' is 'raidmact'.
'raidmact' is an anagram of 'DRAMATIC'.
'and surprising' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dramatic that I've seen before include "relating to plays, etc" , "Like theatre" , "Like play" , "Substantial" , "Histrionic" .)