This book is for people who want to know what makes a search fast once there's too much data to read.
Before a query ever arrives, what can you do to the data so you read less?
Chapter 1 starts from a plain fact: if you read everything, you will always find the answer.
If you'd rather learn to choose a structure by the shape of your queries than memorize one more index type, it's in this book.
Eight chapters run from sorting, B-trees, hashing, inverted indexes, BM25 and vector search to A*, route planning, local search, ant colonies, evaluation functions, and a decision tree for choosing methods.
About 21,000 words, PDF and EPUB, one-time purchase.