Those Who Hold the Fire

Lays of the Hearth-Fire #0.4

by Victoria Goddard

The tanà holds the fire of the community. Thirteen-year-old Kip's always felt a bit of an outsider, but he knows he has what it takes to become the next tanà. He just needs to persuade his Buru Tovo that he's ready for the next step of his apprenticeship. And then take it--but that's easy, right?

A novelette set within the larger story of The Lays of the Hearth-Fire.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, Novella, High Fantasy, Adult

40 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 28, 2022

About the author

I walked across England in 2013, fulfilling a long-held dream. I'm currently the sexton of an Anglican church in Nova Scotia, which means I am keeper of the keys and opener of doors (and shutter-off of alarms). I have a PhD in medieval studies from the University of Toronto, looking at poetry and philosophy in the works of Dante and Boethius -- both the poetry and the philosophy come into my stories a great deal (and occasionally the Dante and the Boethius).

I like writing about the ordinary lives of magical people on the other side of the looking glass ... and the extraordinary deeds of ordinary folk, too. Three of my favourite authors are Patricia McKillip (especially 'The Riddle-Master of Hed' trilogy and 'The Bell at Sealy Head'), Connie Willis ('Bellwether' and 'To Say Nothing of the Dog,' which latter would make my top-ten books on a desert island), and Lois McMaster Bujold ('The Curse of Chalion' and its sequels).

Reviews

[anna b · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Kip's emperor, whoever he was when Kip was ready to go find him, probably wouldn't need a navigator. He'd need Kip. And Kip would be the best tanà."

All of the love in my heart for this stubborn good little kid who grows up to be this stubborn good man who makes the world better with each breath.

[Alexa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kip Mdang is one of my favorite characters ever, and seeing him so young and determined pulls at my heartstrings. I simply cannot wait to read At the Feet of the Sun next month.

[sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

AGHHHHHHHHH

[S.A Reidman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to dip my toes in the water of this series because it fits my theme to a tee. What I got was a splash of everything ... like sticking your head underwater in the Great Barrier Reef - and this burst of colorful creatures comes up and caresses your boring land-accustomed eyes.

Adventure in the future! I can smell it on these few short pages. Adventure, Culture and growth make me want to grab the series and go on a journey with these characters.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Vangavaye-ve is a beautiful.world. There are gorgeous lagoons, canals, pools, the sea, an archipelago of islanda, sea mythology, storytellers, deep community ties and soo much gorgeous blue-green lushness.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:
Kip is 13 in this story and on a journey to learn with his Great relatives who are Tana. He is ambitious but his ambition is nestled between seeking fame, prestige accolades and helping the communities on the groups of islands and larger city. He is very driven and feels like he let Buro Tuvo down by not being able to get a Flame Pearl. Kip is hard on himseld.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:

Obsidian for Efela-ko Rite of Passage/Challenge/Trial:

Kip's first night on Mama Ituri. Don't worry kid - I can barely empty my mind either.🤣

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “The tanà was not the chief or the paramount chief, the saying went, but when the tanà spoke, the chiefs listened.” (The power of the Tana)
🖤 “The Nga Named the Stars, and were the great navigators.
The Mdangs Held the Fire, and held the community together.” (Beautiful worldbuilding)
🖤 “Buru Tovo had told him he had to go back to the city so he didn’t forget all the modern ways, but Kip had grown up with them, and he wanted the old ways.” (I feel like Kip is a key character in the qctual series)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ Tana, Tana-tai
■Lays of the Wide Seas
■Flame Pearls
■ Vou'a and Ani Sea God (in-world) mythology
■Walking The Ring: Sailing The Islands
■Mama Ituri and Mama Ituri's Son

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Short Stories by 2025

[Olosta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just love Kip, could read a story with him anytime :)

[Eh?Eh! · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very short bildungsroman episode, to be read after The Hands of the Emperor. I wince at the kid I was, never learning that failure was a lesson along the way and not proof of anything. I wish everyone could have such elders to comfort and guide along the way, all part of the community that should be every child's network.

[Fernanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

kip criança é extremamente precioso, queria apertar as bochechas dele, e todos as dicas do futuro dele nesse livro, 10/10

"The tanà was not the chief or the paramount chief, the saying went, but when the tanà spoke, the chiefs listened. Kip wanted people to listen to him."

[Marjorie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long short story about Kip at age 13, his hopes and frustrations. Of course it’s good. But read Hands of the Emperor first and get invested in Kip.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kip’s early days

I love the resonance between Kip’s experiences as a teen, and where we know he’ll go later. The reader understands the meaning, even if Kip doesn’t.

[lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

baby kip!!!!!

[Emily Kolach · Rating 4 out of 5]

goddard does a great job of characterizing a young Kip in a way that is true to his older self. a cute novella!

[emi · Rating 5 out of 5]

BABY KIP 😭😭

[Justus · Rating 4 out of 5]

My previous read, 36 Streets, ended on a bleak, nihilistic note so I needed a bit of a palate cleanser and this was perfect for that. It also won't really have any emotional resonance if you haven't already read The Hands of the Emperor.

It is a delightful short story, of perhaps 30 or 40 pages, about Kip as a teenager desperate to make his mark on the world, convinced he's failing at every step, oblivious to his successes.

All of Victoria Goddard's works -- at least the ones I've read so far -- are full of good people doing good things to make the world a better place. There aren't really any villains but to say that means there are low- or no-stakes kind of misses the point. There are no villains in our daily lives but that doesn't mean our lives have no-stakes. We have goals and hopes and dreams that we strive for, sometimes achieve and sometimes fail to reach.

This is a heartwarming return to that kind of thing. If you loved The Hands of the Emperor then you will love this, too. Goddard does a fantastic job of giving young Kip teenage angst without making him actually annoying. It is only with our perspective -- not only as adults but also having seen how the fullness of his life has turned out -- that we know the things he thinks are failures are not so cut and dry.

[Percy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely little look into a youthful Kip Mdang's life!

[Joe Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This prequel to author Victoria Goddard's The Hands of the Emperor is rather short -- the Nine Worlds wiki lists it as a novelette, not even a full novella -- and it's pretty dependent on the reader bringing outside context from that longer original story in order for its emotional beats and heavy foreshadowing to land. I would not advise anyone to start the Lays of the Hearth-fire sequence here, but if you've previously met its protagonist Kip Mdang as an adult, this is an enjoyable look at him at age thirteen, less confident than he'll someday be, yet already determined to both embrace the ancient cultural practices of his people and make his mark on the wider world. It's maybe a bit much to suggest that he was thinking of eventually serving an emperor so early in his life, and the scant length keeps this work from really digging into the hero at this stage, so different than we've seen him before. But it's a nice depiction of a particular coming-of-age moment during his apprenticeship to his uncle Buru Tovo, and one which resonates with what we know of his future journey.

Overall the title works better for me than the writer's Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander novella, so I suppose I'll give this one a rating of three-and-a-half stars, rounded up.

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[Jage · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know these shorts are not perfect, but as I read them, I am enjoying seeing Kip as he was well before the fall as well as how other people see him as he rises to power.

It makes it easier to udnetstsnd how he doesn't deem to fully grasp how far he has come and the changes in his station and also how the miscommunication/misunderstanding with his family happens time and again.

What I really enjoy about this was sering how he fully submersed himself into the old ways, or attempted to, and everyone kept trying to pull him back and make it modern and dismissing what he wanted because they knew best.

It is a fairly common theme in his life, and just as common, once he gets an idea in his head Kip is going to work to get it done, even if it means sometjmes he hurts himself and then doesn't know he has accomplished it.

I love that grown-up Kip has managed to deliver on baby hims dreams, even if he doesn't quite know yet that he has.

And I hope, like his obsidian, that at some point, he will know how to meld the two parts of himself into one to keep them whole.

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

50 pages of joy.

I loved young Kip's voice, impatient, wanting everything to be just so, wanting, wanting... Kip has no idea what is waiting for him, but he is waiting for something. The reader knows, though, and that is absolutely lovely.

"Kip was going to be the best taná there ever had been. There was no doubt about it."

Oh, Kip!

I'm glad I've read yet another story of Nine Worlds. Also, that ending... :)))

[tillie hellman · Rating 5 out of 5]

BABY KIP !!!! *everyone cheered*
some writers are very bad at writing children but i thought this was well done. also shows the beginnings of his character traits and how they change over time. really powerful to have a consistent character that is so different in different parts of his life (pre-teen in this book, pre-fall in the bonus chapters, a few years after the fall in conju’s story, and then HOTE and ATFOS). also i loved seeing the city from baby kip’s pov!

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prequel novella to Hands of the Emperor, which should likely be read after Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander, even though, temporally, it comes much earlier).

Kip is learning from the tanà, Buru Tovo and Uncle Lazo. He's 12/13 and acquiring the obsidian piece of his efala, which is often mentioned in Hands of the Emperor. So the book is from the perspective of a young Kip.

I enjoyed the book. It's quick and interesting and adds some more depth to Kip's character.

[Brenda Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Young Kip

Oh, what a treat, this brief glimpse into Kip's past. Hearing his thoughts and dreams of what could be (advising the Emperor, people at home listening to him), we the reader, having first met him at a later stage of life can only smile.
Like all treats, there's never enough.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

A lovely story following Cliopher doing his best to make those he respects proud and to meet his own expectations - and how he doesn't have to meet his own expectations to make himself and those around him proud. I enjoyed the beautiful imagery as well as the appearances of different familiar characters.

[ellen · Rating 1 out of 5]

oh are we talking about kip again. is kip sooooo cool. are the m'dangs the ones who hold the fire. is kip going to tend the hearthfire of the world because he's the coolest and he's a m'dang who holds the fire. oh holding the fire? that reminds me of my grandson kip he's tana of tanas tending the heartfire of the world yeah he's basically the best he's going to tend the h

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was feeling sad and this cheered me up. There’s just something so heart warming about Goddard’s work. This is about a very young and very earnest Kip. It’s easy to see how he might have become the isolationist alt-Kip. There’s a guest appearance by Buru Tovu’s husband which is even more delightful if you know who he is.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my favorite of Goddard's stories. I suppose stubborn, teen Kip Mdang is not my favorite age (or maturity level) for him. Still, the world-building is there, and elements tie in to what we know later about what happens. I think maybe I wanted something a bit more developed and meaningful, if we're going to take a look at Kip's childhood. It isn't a bad story, but not my favorite.

[Jess Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story. bb!Kip is so determined and adorable - it was rewarding to see flashes of the character we know he grows up to be, plus there were some nice insights about how his eventual role is really something he'd been training for his whole life.

[Vic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kip is baby and I am brimful of love and the desire to smushum cheeks. He’s trying so hard and he succeeds and he doesn’t realize and this all ties in so neatly with the next book in entirely unexpected ways that have me shaking a bit. A+++ work I will always hold the Lays close to my heart

[Tessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this little story connecting to The Hands of the Emperor.

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story about Kip at thirteen years old is a nice little addition to The Hands of the Emperor. It’s difficult to rate something that is the length of a single chapter. It does add something to the bigger story of Kip but doesn’t feel like an essential part of it.

[Fatima ♪(´▽｀) · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ⭐

Reading Those Who Hold the Fire was such a sweet experience. Seeing Kip's ambitions as a child and knowing that he would succeed in it was so lovely to read. I teared up towards the end when the old man asked Kip if he would give up and Kip said no.

This was just such a lovely novella

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this glimpse into Kip's background; it's especially poignant knowing where he ends up.