This book is short and to the point. Despite being quite dense, it's very approachable and is easy to follow. Code examples are written in a very clean and clear pseudocode that makes reading it a joy (god I wish all code in my dev experience was as clean).
Despite being "academic" I can't call it being dry, it has enough of illustrations and explanations that makes it a pretty entertaining.
This is definitely one of the best books on the topic that I've read. Overall it was a pleasant surprise.