This is a great book - but it's not what I expected, or what I was really looking for. In short, *spoiler alert* –&nbsp;the constant theme of this book is "There are no clear right or wrong answers, there are only tradeoffs." That advice gets repeated in every chapter of the book, through countless examples.<br><br>That's terrific practical advice, and good knowledge for any architect to have. However, if you're looking for a book full of design patterns and specific advice about how best to implement something, you will be very frustrated by this book. In fact, there's essentially zero actual code in the entire book. It's not that kind of book.<br><br>The first 2/3 of the book do outline a lot of broad architectural styles and patterns, and do an excellent job of considering the many pros and cons of each. The last section of the book, though, is entirely about "soft skills" career advice for effectively doing the *job* of architect in a company (people skills, management skills, presentation skills, etc.).  Frankly, the title doesn't imply that at all, and I just wish this book had been called something more accurate to its true nature, like: "How to Pursue a Software Architect Career"