Stomach "mouth". The words "gastro-" and "gastric" (meaning related to the stomach) are both derived from the Greek word "gaster" (, meaning "belly"). Although the precise shape and size of the stomach varies widely among different vertebrates, the relative positions of the oesophageal and duodenal openings remain relatively constant. As a result, the organ always curves somewhat to the left before curving back to meet the pyloric sphincter. However, lampreys, hagfishes, chimaeras, lungfishes, and some teleost fish have no stomach at all, with the oesophagus opening directly into the anus. These animals all consume diets that either require little storage of
In the Mouth of the Whale that the novel matched the high standards of its predecessors, noting that "[a] layer of political and emotional complexity is missing from the new novel. Maybe it is better to read it as a standalone work, completely detached from what went before." Greg L. Johnson's review was more positive, concluding "[i]n short, everything we've come to expect from Paul McAuley at his best." In the Mouth of the Whale In the Mouth of the Whale is a 2012 science fiction novel by Paul J. McAuley, the third in his "Quiet War" sequence. While "The Quiet War" and "Gardens of the