The cunning, initiative and courage which [the boys in The Machine Gunners] show in carrying out their plan under the noses of the adults, as well as those of a suspicious rival gang, are totally convincing and most admirably recounted by [Robert Westall], whose insight into the boy mind places him in the William Golding league. (pp. 55-6)

No better junior novel than this has appeared for a long time…. Indeed, adult readers would learn a great deal from it. (p. 56)

Robert Bell, "Fiction: 'The Machine Gunners'," in The School Librarian, Vol. 24, No. 1, March, 1976, pp. 55-6.