I was thinking more about The Fountain and why I like it so much.
I suspect it is the multiple time periods. Specifically, the 1500s, the present, and the far future. It’s just cool.
It’s why I like Cloud Atlas (book and movie), and Highlander. The former is very clever, the latter is just plain fun. Both are underrated. I guess I will forgive bad in other areas for some time-hopping in the story telling.
For example, in Highlander, the plot is fine. But it gets super interesting as we learn more about the protagonist, his training, and his dealings with the antagonist with flashbacks across time and place.
Not last year, but across hundreds (thousands?) of years.
Similarly, Anne Rice does this well in the Interview with the Vampire books, as we see the story unfold in the present (1980s I think?) and understand our characters and world through stories from the 1700s onward, and older in the later books.
It’s not just across time, we also have have to jump through place. And jumping though place alone is not enough, you’ll end up with James Bond (or Jumper), where we see tons of locations, which are beautiful, but meh.
What do we call this kind of thing?
- Parallel Narrative
- Historical-Contemporary Fusion
- Multi-Period Fiction
Grok says “Timeweave Narrative” and “Temporal Contextual Narrative”, Ouch. Maybe we don’t need to put a label on it.
Anyway, it’s good stuff.
Even a mediocre plot is way more interesting when you through in some more time periods :)