Primarily, [The Shield of Achilles] tells a solid, exciting, decidedly untrivial story…. [Its] picture of island life rings true. The young heroine caught between two friends whose feelings about Cyprus and themselves have placed them in opposition faces a real choice. This is undoubtedly a message book, but the message has nothing directly to do with growing up. It deals with more basic things: good and evil, courage, loyalty, the value of friendship and of human life, the effects of war. These are lessons that are the fabric of maturity, not just the pattern it is cut from—answers that are not adult-to-teen-ager clichés, but human truths.