Five by Five—Current events influence new book on the decline of democracy

By Max Bowen 

Duncan Ritchie’s technothriller “The Truth Chamber” (Sept. 1) takes the decline of American democracy to frightening ends. In an election year marred by violence, Democratic candidate Anna Hoffman warns a divided America that the country will devolve into a Russia 2.0 if her rival, Mack Leach (the Red Caesar), wins the White House.

After a confrontation with a book burner, Admiral Liam Driscoll joins Anna’s team, and he recruits a Stanford PhD student developing an AI technology called the Truth Chamber to figure out who is behind the escalating violence and an assassination attempt on Anna. Can the truth save America? Or will the Red Caesar bring an end to democracy as we know it? 

Learn more at www.duncanritchie.com.

What inspired this book?
The seed for “The Truth Chamber” was planted while I was working for a Japanese bank in Singapore in 2016, with the twin shocks of Brexit and Donald Trump's election. But the true catalyst came in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. I watched UC San Diego professor Barbara F. Walter discussing her book “How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them.” I devoured her book, then dozens of others. I began filling notebooks with "what if?" scenarios. Those notebooks became the foundation for “The Truth Chamber.”

Did current events play a role? If so, how?
Absolutely. I finished the first draft of “The Truth Chamber” the day after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race in 2024. It forced me to rethink the novel’s political backdrop. In the end, I knitted a speculative future to a (largely) historically accurate American past, diverging around 2016. My goal was to hold up a mirror to America, then tilt it forward slightly—a warning: “This is where you could be heading.”

Kirkus Reviews called “The Truth Chamber” “eerily prescient” and said, “readers may feel like they’ve found a history book from the future.” That’s a wonderful compliment. One of my editors put it slightly differently: writers don’t necessarily see into the future; sometimes they simply see what is happening a little earlier and more clearly than everyone else. I prefer that idea: that if we observe the present closely enough, the traces of our possible futures are already there.

What kind of research was done for this book?
Not being American has both helped and challenged me. I wanted to ensure my representations of America’s past and of an emerging fascist leader were broadly accurate. I came to the project without the potential benefits—or baggage—of an American education, and with a hell of a lot to learn. I read about 50 books on fascism, the history of race relations in the US, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, the role of money and religion in politics, and, of course, language and the art of deception.

I also spent six weeks traveling through nine US states during the 2024 election, visiting key locations in the book. I volunteered for the Harris campaign and knocked on doors in Atlanta, Georgia. That gave me direct experience of a campaign, albeit on the periphery. But more importantly, it gave me invaluable conversations with voters—a real-time temperature check on the American electorate in the days before the election.

How did your own career as a former banker help you when it came to creating the story?
I spent much of my career working on complex transactions across Asia, where political risk was often intertwined with financial risk—I lived through the Asian financial crisis and a coup in Thailand. You learn to ask hard questions: What could go wrong? What are we taking for granted? What happens if institutions, governments or political leaders behave differently from the way everyone assumes or expects they will?

I think that was why Barbara Walter’s interview and book caught my attention—she was identifying warning signs of potential instability and political violence in the US that we tend to associate with decaying democracies in more troubled parts of the world. So I did what risk analysts do: I followed those risks to their logical extremes. But this time, instead of putting my analysis in a briefing paper, I put it in a thriller.

What is your perspective on US elections?
I’m finishing up an essay on what I describe as America’s crisis of democratic legitimacy; in a sense, it’s the nonfiction companion to “The Truth Chamber.” I think ordinary Americans have every reason to feel frustrated and disillusioned with their elections, and with the widening gap between what citizens expect from their representatives and what their political institutions deliver.

As an outsider looking in, aspects of US elections seem bizarre—gerrymandering, dysfunctional institutions, the influence of money, the increasingly toxic polarization. It’s easy to understand why so many ordinary Americans feel the system isn't working for them. And there’s another emerging risk: the delegitimization of elections themselves. If people stop believing elections are free and fair, you risk losing democracy’s greatest strengths: its capacity for self-correction and the peaceful transfer of power.

It seems to me that a democracy designed in the 18th century is struggling to cope with the 21st. It’s a little like trying to run your iPhone 17 Pro Max on OS 1: without an upgrade, sooner or later, it’s going to crash.

Five by Five: In her debut novel, Jude Berman shares a story of saving democracy

By Max Bowen

Author Jude Berman’s debut novel, “The Die,” saw its roots following the results of the 2016 presidential election, and in 2024, she sees the message as even more important. Here’s a look at the plot:

Darah, a tech writer living in the democratic nation of California, is dismayed to see the game she’s helping develop for a Silicon Valley tech company has been tampered with. When her hacker friend Jedd investigates, he uncovers a conspiracy that could change the nation—and the world.

With a circle of close friends, Jedd digs deeper and deeper into the darknet and exposes the unthinkable: an app is being developed that uses quantum computing and neuroscience to alter people’s brains, totally unbeknownst to them. As the friends realize the devastating impact of this technology, they’re presented with a dilemma: stay quiet and stay safe, or risk their lives to stand up to the international authoritarian force behind this plot?

In this new Five by Five interview, Jude shares the origin of the book, how it developed, as well as how it ties elements of spirituality with the current times. She talks about the lengthy research done for the science of the book, how she developed her main characters, Darah and Jedd, and the roles of cultural diversity and social justice in the story.


What about this topic appealed to you enough to write a book about it?
In a nutshell, the topic of “The Die” is saving democracy. I began writing it immediately following the 2016 election, after talking to so many people who expressed shock and dismay yet who had done little or nothing that might have contributed to a different outcome. I saw a soup of apathy, fear, anger and delusion. Some folks didn’t seem to think it made much difference whether they lived in a democracy or a dictatorship. Others saw the difference, but said politics was too dirty; even watching or reading the news was too toxic for them. Most of these people, if asked, would self-identify as “spiritual.”

I was deeply troubled by this tendency to create a dichotomy between our spiritual and worldly lives. How can our country—not to mention our planet—survive if we hold back from fully and lovingly engaging with it? In fact, I’d spent decades studying ancient sources of wisdom that defined spirituality in terms of our ability to appreciate the oneness of the universe and to carry that vision into each moment of daily life. Knowing most readers aren’t likely to pick up what they think is an archaic text, I wanted to incorporate the essence of that wisdom into a futuristic story that is both relevant and entertaining. In 2024, with the future of democracy even more on the line, I’m thankful I followed through on this topic. I only hope it’s not too late.

Do you have a lot of experience with this kind of science, or did this require some research? If so, what did you learn?
The nice thing about writing speculative fiction is that it allowed me to have a bit of fun with the science. I had the freedom to create any technology I wished, as long as I was fairly confident no one could definitively prove it couldn’t exist within the time frame I was suggesting it might. A low bar, really (which I made lower by not giving any specific dates for events in “The Die”). When I was on the academic staff at Stanford during the early boom years of Silicon Valley, just about everyone I knew was associated with one or another startup company, and when I began freelancing as a writer and editor, I did consulting gigs at various tech and biotech companies. So I’d say that—while I’m neither a hacker nor a gamer—I did get the basic lay of the land.

Fortunately, I have a strong research background and enjoy putting it to use. For example, the products in R&D at the company where our heroes work include smart dust and neurodust, which I learned about through my research. I also researched the timeline for the market introduction of aero cars, which I discovered is a bit of a moving target (pun intended). I didn’t have to do much research on the neuroscience I included, because I was familiar with that content from my work as an editor over the years.

How did you develop the characters of Darah and Jedd?
All the characters in “The Die” are based on counterparts in the ancient epic of the Mahabharata. Darah is based on Draupadi, and Jedd on Yudhishthira. I wanted Darah to be the only one who had experienced life in a dictatorship; that would enable her to appreciate some threats the others could not see and potentially to warn them. It also meant she would have sensitivities and vulnerabilities the others did not have—something that is both her strength and her weakness. I drew on my own experience when developing her character. Like Darah, I’m a first-generation American. While her mother was deported from the dictatorship to Afghanistan, my mother was arrested and then expelled from Nazi Germany. Like my mother, Darah suffers from PTSD; like me, she has intergenerational trauma. Notably, she works as a tech writer, something I used to do.

My original model when developing Jedd was Barack Obama. In addition to looking kind of like a younger Barack, Jedd has a similar wily combination of intelligence, problem-solving ability, leadership, and unshakable cool. Like Yudhisthira, Jedd has one human flaw: blindness when it comes to gambling. That flaw plays a pivotal role in both “The Die” and the ancient epic, suggesting that, despite the vastly different eras in which these stories take place, some basic aspects of human nature have not evolved all that much.

I read in your bio that your parents instilled “a deep appreciation for cultural diversity and social justice.” Does this come through in the book?
I think it comes through in various ways. I knew going into the project that, while the heroes of the Mahabharata are the five Pandava princes, having five male leads in “The Die” was a nonstarter. So I set about creating a diverse cast. Darah, in addition to being a woman, is a first-generation Afghan American. Jedd is a biracial man; his mother is Jewish and his father is African American. June is an Asian American woman. Beers is a physically large White man. Nick and Zack, based on twin brothers in the epic, are two gay men who look very much alike and jokingly call themselves twins. While it might seem obvious that all current fiction should reflect the diversity of our culture, I’m continually surprised at the extent to which this is not the case.

Social justice is central to the plot of “The Die,” as the characters fight to save democracy from a dictator who would destroy any prospects for a fair and equal society in which each person’s rights are respected and protected. I drew on the concept of dharma, from the Mahabharata and other Eastern traditions, to exemplify the principles of equitable and right action and of working for the greater good of all. How ironic that we could learn how to embody principles central to social justice from wisdom dating back to an era when monarchy and social hierarchy predominated.

I also read that you’ve worked as an editor and running two small presses. Did this help you in the writing or publishing process?
Being both a developmental and a copy editor certainly helped. I’d almost go so far as to say this book (and the two that are forthcoming—“The Vow” [Oct. 24] and “Shot” [July 25]) would be no more than a twinkle in my brain if I didn’t have those skills. Running the small presses didn’t affect my writing but it did inform my journey through the publishing world. I learned firsthand the critical importance of both distribution and marketing/promotion for a book’s success. When many people were turning to self-publishing, I swore I’d never do that because I wasn’t going to underestimate the challenge of getting a book into the hands of readers. At the same time, while I had always venerated traditional publishing, I began to see that wasn’t a viable route for me, due to my age and lack of a large enough social media following. When I learned about hybrid publishing (specifically, SparkPress/She Writes Press), my experience with small presses led me to quickly appreciate how the hybrid model could offer the best of both worlds. Some authors new to hybrid publishing struggle with their responsibility for promotion, but my experience with small presses made it easier for me to see why and how I needed to jump in. Plus, I had a partner in my publisher, so I didn’t feel the burden of self-publishing—or for that matter, the stress of running a small press.