The Child Study Association just gave [A Sound of Chariots] its annual award, but it is difficult to understand why: the pace is infinitesimally slow, the main character is a reactor rather than an initiator, the other characters pallid…. Bridie is described as on her way to becoming a writer, a form of creative introversion that lends no energy to this lifeless fiction.

Lillian N. Gerhardt, "Junior High Up: 'A Sound of Chariots'," in School Library Journal, an appendix to Library Journal (reprinted from the May, 1973 issue of School Library Journal, published by R. R. Bowker Co./A Xerox Corporation; copyright © 1973), Vol. 19, No. 9, May, 1973, p. 80.