UD: Skymouths or Skymaws?

[Leesa]

I'm not very far in (Kirit is doing her wingtest). In the audiobook, the narrator says Skymouths. But in reviews, I see people referring to Skymaws. Are they two different things? Or is this a weird pronounciation thing? I pronounce "maw" like "paw" or "raw".

[Serendi]

It's skymouths. I even searched on skymaw in case it also appears and it doesn't.

[Tassie Dave, S&L Historian]

Fran Wilde does use the term 'Maw' several times for the Skymouth's mouth.

I'd say it's just a term she uses because 'Skymouth's mouth' might get a bit repetitive and silly sounding if used too much.

[Lindsay]

And "maw" is evocative of a predatory leviathan with an enormous opening full of glass teeth.

[Joanna Chaplin]

Lindsay wrote: "And "maw" is evocative of a predatory leviathan with an enormous opening full of glass teeth."

Especially since the mouth is the only easily visible part.

[Paulo]

Is it? I'm still trying to picture it within my mind. I imagine something with a huge maw (or mouth), tentacles flaying about, and I suppose some bat-like wings to allow it to fly - but the final picture results into something out of a Cthulhu story, not an animal - even an ugly one.

How are you guys picturing it?

[Lindsay]

Like an enormous squid but with teeth. I was thinking complex chromataphores rather than actual transparency but I'm not sure if the text supports that.

In terms of flight I was thinking of them more as natural blimps rather than bats. We know that the gravity of this world must be a fraction of our own, otherwise flight wouldn't work for humans, so a large creature may be quite maneuverable using this strategy.

[terpkristin]

I envision it like a Marlboro from the Final Fantasy games. Will find an image when I'm at a real computer.

Edit: I'm at a real computer. This wiki page shows what I was envisioning and even notes that "some are able to fly."

[Trike]

Like he city, I never really got a good mental image for the skymouths. I just assumed they were flying squidsharks. But at the end she faces a gigantic one... which is choked to death by the little one she carried with her. It seems the size and abilities of individual creatures are variable based on the needs of the story.