Alex Aster wrote Starside in secret. For years, while Lightlark was still happening, she was building another world on the side, one with no guardrails and no one looking over her shoulder. She wanted to write something more adult, more romance-heavy, and angrier than anything she had done before. So she did not tell anyone.
"I've been writing it in secret for many years, and I didn't tell anyone," Aster tells Ponton at Spotify Studios. "I just didn't want any limits to what I wanted to explore in the story."
The result is Starside, a revenge quest wrapped in a romantasy package. The protagonist, Ares, is not looking for magic. She is looking for blood. She is in her twenties, knows exactly who she is, and is full of enough rage to fuel a 500-page book. Aster calls her a phoenix. The dedication reads, "for all those phoenixes out there keep rising from the ashes." Ares has a sad backstory (naturally), and she has had to pull herself out of the ashes again and again. That is the book.
A revenge quest with sword tattoos and a beast tree
The world is split in two. Starside is the land of magic, immortals, and gods. Stormside is post-apocalyptic, where mortals fight for scraps of magic. Every 50 years, giant magical gates open, and 50 mortals can attempt a deadly quest across Starside to bring back a cup of magic. Most do not survive. Ares goes anyway, not for magic but for revenge.
The magic system runs on swords. Metal matters. A copper blade shatters against silver. On Starside, magic swords have power, and you have to be strong enough to claim one. If you claim a powerful sword, you become a target, because anyone who kills you gets your sword. Ares claims one. She is now a target.
There are god swords that glow. There is a character named Zara with a silver tattoo down her neck and spine that becomes a real sword when she grips an invisible hilt. There is the beast tree, a massive tree you climb on the outside, jump off, and hope a dragon or helm hawk catches you. If nothing catches you, you are crushed. Aster wants to jump off a giant tree and be caught by a silver dragon. So she wrote it.
"I wrote what I wanted to read," Aster says. "I want a magical tattoo of a sword that becomes a sword. That would be so useful."
Female rage is the epitome of Gen Z, apparently
"I feel like female rage is like the epitome of Gen Z," Ponton offers. Aster agrees. "Starside has so much female rage." Ares is on a revenge quest. She thinks she might be monstrous. She is also kind and cares about other people, which complicates things. The internal journey is about learning to open her heart to love while still being furious.
Aster cried writing it. "You really go through it with Ares like she goes through a lot but there's also magical moments." Magical balls, beautiful dresses, deadly creatures trying to kill you. Both sides of it. Aster hopes readers finish the book having gone through the journey with Ares and finding their own inner strength.
Ponton's sister has not read a book in seven years. She finally picked up Fourth Wing, then asked for more. Ponton sent her a list with Lightlark on it. "I was like, 'These are kind of like in the same realm but will change the way that you view yourself and I feel like she could really use a main character to look up to that's strong.'" Aster has heard this before. People come up to her at book events and say they had not read for 10 years, picked up Lightlark, and have now read a hundred books.
"It only takes one good book to make a lifelong reader," Aster says.
True enemies-to-lovers means they actually want each other dead
Romantasy is having a moment because it blends the fast pace of YA with adult stakes and adult romance. People want to escape into another world, follow a strong character, and watch enemies fall in love under circumstances that would never be okay in real life. Aster is explicit about this. "You get to explore things that in real life would never be okay. But in fantasy, yeah, these characters go through like the most extreme circumstances and then they still manage to find love."
The enemy in Starside is Harlan Riker, a deadly knight. Ares hates him. He hates her. They have a history. They want each other dead. "It's very much like enemies-to-lovers, but true enemies-to-lovers. They actually really hate each other and they want each other dead." Aster requested a duet narration for the audiobook so Riker could have his own voice. Anthony Palmini, who voiced Graham in the Lightlark audiobooks, plays Riker. Aster wanted a deep, menacing voice. She got one.
If the book has a Taylor Swift song, Aster says it is "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" She also listened to "The Prophecy" while writing. The Wuthering Heights soundtrack was on repeat. Any of the BookTok songs about knights and fantasy.
Spotify's page match is a game changer for long books
Aster loves long books because they swallow your life. You live in that world. But they are hard to travel with. Spotify's new page match feature lets you scan where you are in a physical book and jump to that exact moment in the audiobook. Ponton calls it a game changer. "Normally I have to be like scrolling through the thing being like, 'No, I think I I think I'm past this chapter this that.'"
Aster agrees. "It's great. The idea that you could kind of like go back to where you are and in the fact that even if you're like in a waiting room, you could like just, you know, get some reading done." Audiobooks have opened the door for people intimidated by 500-page books. You can listen while cooking, cleaning, walking on a treadmill. Ponton accidentally downloaded King of Greed in German on a flight from Switzerland to LA and considered just learning German.
Aster sent early clips of the Starside audiobook and cried listening to them. "Even though I wrote every single word, it does sound different. They almost make it their own because when I'm reading it in my head or out loud when I'm editing, I put a different intonation on words." She thinks people who read the physical copy should go back and listen, because it feels like a different experience. Almost like watching a movie.
"Nothing gets me out of my head more than a good book," Aster says. "That's the only thing that will just quiet my mind and like just swallow my existence for days. I really think of every book I buy as like a portal. You're in that world and nothing else needs to exist."
Ponton started putting her phone across the room at night so she would read instead of scroll in the morning. Twenty minutes turned into an hour. She was calmer. Aster swapped scrolling for reading in the morning too. "I still scroll like later, but at least like not starting the day with anxiety."
Three words for Starside: enchanted, dangerous, phoenix. Aster wrote what she wanted to live in. A magical inn with sword tattoos, a beast tree you jump off, a revenge quest that turns into something else. A book that people can fall into and lose themselves in. And hopefully finish wanting the next one, but also feeling like they took a journey of their own.