Only in the last 2 years have I begun my journey on reading as a hobby and pastime. I focused on sci-fi and fantasy picking series of books like The Witcher, The Wool series and The Expanse.
As I get to the last page of these books and browse the other books by the author they often have standalone novels set in the same universe.
The same thought crosses my mind that these books are probably not as good as the series of books and are more world building or cashing in on the success of the others.
What single novels or miniseries have you read that stood out as more interesting to you than the series an author is famous for?
My challenge with giving a meaningful input to this thread is that I struggle to think of an author whose books series I have read and have read their stand alone stuff.
The closest I can come up with is Leigh Bardugo and this answer doesn’t really fit what you are asking for.
Her main series is the Shadow and Bone trilogy, her stand alone book that actually became a duology is The Six of Crows, which I enjoyed much more than the Shadow And Bone stuff. In fact I couldn’t finished the second book of Shadow and Bone.