Oh, I hadn't thought of Foundation! But you're right, it has exactly that structure. I wonder whether Scalzi was trying to imitate it?
...but I went back and looked and the resolution of the cliffhanger infodumping is, yeah, like you say, driving interesting puzzles and also folded into a scene that furthers the plot and the worldbuilding. Whereas I felt like Scalzi's scenes were so static! Cardenia would be like "dum de dum let me do this thing that has no relation at all to the cliffhanger, and oh by the way now we will have a flashback to the resolution of the last chapter," and it just didn't make any sense why he would do it that way!
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Date: 2021-07-24 05:25 am (UTC)...but I went back and looked and the resolution of the cliffhanger infodumping is, yeah, like you say, driving interesting puzzles and also folded into a scene that furthers the plot and the worldbuilding. Whereas I felt like Scalzi's scenes were so static! Cardenia would be like "dum de dum let me do this thing that has no relation at all to the cliffhanger, and oh by the way now we will have a flashback to the resolution of the last chapter," and it just didn't make any sense why he would do it that way!