World of the Rift. Stupid idea?

[jm.milks]

The story behind the world I'm creating involves a network of rift nodes connecting my world to numerous other ones around the galaxy, allowing the world to be inhabited by migrants from various planets.

I use this connection at various points, including when it was originally used, allowing humans and others to migrate there and begin their own branch of evolution before it was abandoned and shut down for nearly destroying the race. After that, it's activated several times in the several thousand years of this story, resulting in flooding a third of the planet, invasions, ect. to ultimately destroying the world in the end.

The part I start getting uneasy about is the idea of another machine used by a female protagonist to go back in time so she can save her family from numerous catastrophes initially caused by her and the Rift.

Is this the epitome of dankness, or just a generally stupid idea?

 

[Devor]

Darkness is all in the tone. Despite the backdrop, you could write it to be bleak and foreboding or a fun romp through the ages. It's up to you whether the MC feels more depressed or determined. Nevermind how the character feels - how does the reader feel? That's tone.

I think it's a good idea. Every time the MC jumps across time, as I understand it, you're going to have a completely different set of circumstances. Since they aren't very connected, your character is on a Journey. The "connection" is in the way she grows through each encounter. It's a good model.

The big challenge, though, I think is going to be quality control. As I understand it, you're basically going to have to redo all of the worldbuilding every time she jumps through time. Each one has to be just as compelling as the last, and you don't have a lot of time to build that reader connection before the character jumps on to the next catastrophe. I would say that's where you risk me or other readers putting a book like this down. I might be on board for one instance, but when it's done how much will feel like starting over? That's what you'll need to work on.

 

[ThinkerX]

Strangely, a concept similar to the OP's figures in my WIP's, though its more of a background element:

Long ago, aliens terraformed a world and used rifts to populate it with lifeforms from other worlds, including humans and other earth based critters. Then they screwed up, Lovecraftian demons invaded the planet, and most of the aliens fled or went into hiding.

Now, thousands of years later, humans took down the biggest bad-ass of the Lovecraftian demons, and other entities are eyeing an unguarded gateway.

 

[jm.milks]

Darkness is all in the tone. Despite the backdrop, you could write it to be bleak and foreboding or a fun romp through the ages. It's up to you whether the MC feels more depressed or determined.

The two planned series I have a storyline laid out for actually incorporate both of them. It pretty much follows two family lines through time. One family suffers throughout it's time, unable to figure out any other way to save the world and the people they care for other than sacrifice, while the other, consistently keeping hopes up as they fight for the good.


As for the time jumping, I have it placed twice in the entire timeline for my world, and depressingly enough, she can't stop the catastrophes, but she becomes the reason that a few people survived, including herself.

Meaning she eventually realizes that she is stuck in an eternal loop where she goes back in time, saves herself and her brothers, dies before she can tell her younger self, who goes back to do the same... If that makes sense.