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I've just finished Submergence by J.M. Ledgard - which immediately made me think of Richard Powers' magnificent novel Plowing the Dark - both novels employ double stranded narratives, one strand of which is a man held hostage by terrorists, trying to remain sane through imagination & memories. The other strand features a female character drawn to an alternate reality (mathematics & abyssal ocean diving in Ledgard, virtual reality software in Powers book). Both books explore the power of imagination/memory, the effects of solitude (enforced or welcomed), the complex relationships of humans to their environment - both natural and artificial, and other themes.
The parallels are quite striking - if you've read both books, and make the Ledgard work seem highly derivative. I'm surprised that (AFAIK) no reviewer has caught this similarity.
Compared side by side, the Ledgard work is shallow - especially in the sections featuring the female character - and a pale shadow of Powers book.
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