Disclaimers: I haven't read most of the following; not all of them are *positive* portrayals of such friendships; at least half of these are fantasy; some may or may not be anywhere close to what you're looking for. And I wasn't sure whether you were specifically looking for works by men or not.
Also, the below list is of course not intended to disagree with your premise that such friendships between female characters are relatively rare in sf; I agree that they're rare. But I thought you might be interested in seeing a few more examples or possible examples.
Alastair Reynolds: Pushing Ice Andrea Hairston: Mindscape Charles de Lint: (various) Don Sakers: Dance for the Ivory Madonna Eleanor Arnason: A Woman of the Iron People Jane Yolen: The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms Jane Yolen: Sister Light, Sister Dark Kate Elliott: Jaran series Laurie Marks: Elemental Logic series Melissa Scott: Trouble and Her Friends Nicola Griffith: Slow River Suzy McKee Charnas: Holdfast Chronicles
...Have you considered suggesting this as a panel topic for next year's WisCon? We did one on relationship networks in sf a couple years back (my favorite example there is Le Guin's "The Shobies' Story"), but I don't feel like we quite managed to do justice to even that particular angle on the general topic, and I think your idea here is an interesting and different angle anyway.
...Also possibly relevant in thinking about this stuff: the (somewhat misnamed) "Mo Movie Measure," noting the paucity of movies (and, by extension, books) in which two named female characters talk to each other about something other than men. That's not nearly as strong a criterion as what you're looking for, but it's still rarer than one might wish.
...Not entirely related to your topic, I'm also curious about examples of male/female (but nonsexual and nonromantic) close friendships in sf. I feel like it's more common than the two-women friendships you're talking about, but the only one I can think of offhand is in Parke Godwin's A Truce With Time. Well, and I guess there's Bujold's Ethan of Athos.
More possible items
Disclaimers: I haven't read most of the following; not all of them are *positive* portrayals of such friendships; at least half of these are fantasy; some may or may not be anywhere close to what you're looking for. And I wasn't sure whether you were specifically looking for works by men or not.
Also, the below list is of course not intended to disagree with your premise that such friendships between female characters are relatively rare in sf; I agree that they're rare. But I thought you might be interested in seeing a few more examples or possible examples.
Alastair Reynolds: Pushing Ice
Andrea Hairston: Mindscape
Charles de Lint: (various)
Don Sakers: Dance for the Ivory Madonna
Eleanor Arnason: A Woman of the Iron People
Jane Yolen: The Mermaid's Three Wisdoms
Jane Yolen: Sister Light, Sister Dark
Kate Elliott: Jaran series
Laurie Marks: Elemental Logic series
Melissa Scott: Trouble and Her Friends
Nicola Griffith: Slow River
Suzy McKee Charnas: Holdfast Chronicles
...Have you considered suggesting this as a panel topic for next year's WisCon? We did one on relationship networks in sf a couple years back (my favorite example there is Le Guin's "The Shobies' Story"), but I don't feel like we quite managed to do justice to even that particular angle on the general topic, and I think your idea here is an interesting and different angle anyway.
...Also possibly relevant in thinking about this stuff: the (somewhat misnamed) "Mo Movie Measure," noting the paucity of movies (and, by extension, books) in which two named female characters talk to each other about something other than men. That's not nearly as strong a criterion as what you're looking for, but it's still rarer than one might wish.
...Not entirely related to your topic, I'm also curious about examples of male/female (but nonsexual and nonromantic) close friendships in sf. I feel like it's more common than the two-women friendships you're talking about, but the only one I can think of offhand is in Parke Godwin's A Truce With Time. Well, and I guess there's Bujold's Ethan of Athos.