more fantasy, and comedic fantasy at that, but -- i've always liked the friendship between granny weatherwax and nanny ogg in terry pratchett's discworld. maybe theirs is an easier kind of friendship for a writer to get a handle on, because our society does have a sort of agreed-upon script that "friendships between old women" are supposed to follow. it is fun to read, though! and considering that their personalities, like most of pratchett's characters, intentionally follow various cliched fantasy stereotypes, their relationship still feels surprisingly fresh and unusual.

(came here from from a link in ozarque's LJ -- hope you don't mind the comment!)