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Ursus

Published by Franklin Watts in 1989. Hardcover.
Reissued by Wildside Press in 2000. Trade paperback.
Ebook edition published by Smashwords in 2010.

"Jaws goes inland. ... Lots of gore, a nicely controlled pace." - Kirkus Reviews
"Believably frightening." - Rocky Mountain News

So what about those giant, rampaging monsters? As we all know, the giant ants and gila monsters and so on wouldn't work: They'd be unable to lift their own weight off the ground, and they couldn't breathe. In general, what works at ant size wouldn't work at Godzilla size. Even if it did work, the giant beast wouldn't be super strong, but superweak.

Why, you ask? Why? Read Ursus and find out. One of the biologist characters gives another character a lecture on the subject.

I decided to invent a small monster - that is, start with something that's strong and dangerous at its normal size and shrink it, ending up with a really strong and really dangerous little ... what? It seemed to me that the most dangerous possibility would be a horde of tiny elephants, but I suspected that most readers would laugh instead of shiver.

I finally settled on bears. And I didn't make them really tiny. More like large dogs. And even more intellgent than real bears. And given to hunting in packs. (They're mutations. And throwbacks. The same biologist explains all of that, too.) If you don't find that image disturbing, read a few books about real bears, and then you'll be disturbed. You'll stay in the city, too. Oh, except that my invented minibears decided they prefer the city. More meat there.