UTF-16 strings, is there a simple way of using them?

So, I have to handle data that is UTF-16 encoded. No ifs ands or buts. Network messages on the service I'm communicating with sends and recieves UTF-16 encoded strings only. After taking a look at the Multibyte String functions, I don't know how much they will help me, though character encoding is a bit beyond me (For now). So what simple way is there to take a UTF-16 message and read it, analyze it, get information from it? -- llundi0v