"I mean, my recruiter—"
"—is probably laughing his ass off right now."
Stephen Winchek wants to be a cargo pilot, hopping between worlds through nice, safe areas of space. He's willing to serve a few years with the Deep Space Imperial Navy to get the training and experience, then he plans to go commercial. His plans do not include learning to fly an archaic atmospheric jet fighter in an unwinnable war where the other side, the ones trying to kill him, are backward aliens flying antique prop planes... who are protected by his own government, which has declared the enemy to be an endangered species.
Then there's his DoRA-212D's AI computer, Alessandra, a female persona with an overwhelming sultry voice and an incipient case of morality. If the war is unwinnable, should she even consent to fight it? When she asks the other intelligent aircraft, they can't answer her question and become equally troubled.
For Love of DoRA, historian Matt DiPalma's first military science fiction novel, tells the story of a naїve, befuddled pilot struggling to survive a war he never even knew existed. Like the other pilots fighting with him, combat terrifies him, until he discovers he's good at it.