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I'd say about 300 pages / 100000ish words is _generally_ the sweet spot. There are exceptions. Take Iain Banks. He wrote a lot of vast books, but his tightest book, and _generally_ most readable, and the first published, is Player of Games. It's probably a bit over 100000 words / 300 pages.
There are a few SF authors who do write longer novels that are good. David Brin's longer stuff doesn't feel overlong. The Postman, for example. But overall, I'd say 100000ish words is about right. Robert Charles Wilson's book are all about that, and they read well. Clarke, Asimov, Dick, Strugatsky. It's all mostly short, and when they go longer, it's not so good, it veers, it's indulgent. I can't think of many very long books that don't feel like they couldn't be shortened.
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