Rating: 
Summary: Terrible and disgusting!!!
Review: This book was so disgusting I couldn't even finish it! What got me particularly got me was Lucrezia and Cesare's incestuous relationship that I found so terible. What was Puzo thinking when he wrote this piece of garbage! I found none of the characters the least bit likable or sympathetic, unlike the characters in The Godfather & Omerta. When the book mentioned that thet were trying to protect themselves from invasion, I couldn't help but wish they would get overrun by invaders. Terrible characters, terrible, context, in fact I wish I could've given it ZERO stars!!
Rating: 
Summary: A literary history of a turbulent time and family power
Review: This is a gripping tale of the Renaissance. Couched in a scholarly description of that era, and the often violent means by which power is sought and gained. The characters are colorful, complex and lusty.
The plot is woven of the many strands of a particular era, while studded with a timeless human drama, elegantly expressed through its need for relationships, hierarchy, affection, jealousies and anger. This story is undoubtedly the genesis for every family-centered book that Mario Puzo wrote. The times and settings may have changed, but the nature and dynamics of the characters, the means employed to secure protection and control, the emplacement of ritual --all echo his deep understanding of this vivid, even brutal time. In many ways, this is a prequel to "The Godfather". It's an important legacy, one that clarifies the scope, talent, insight and imagination of this creative man.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Potential but Fell Flat
Review: This novel had great potential but if fell flat for the characters were not richly developed and dialogue seemed flat. The historical era could have lent itself to so many fascinating stories, but instead we got wars and alliances, in a chronilogical series, with little enrichment. A few famous characters were integrated into the plot, but I don't know why for they were never well developed into the story. We know no more about them now then did before reading this novel. I never felt as if I was there in the story and I never really felt for the characters. It was a slow read and the end was so sadly predicable, all loose ends tied up neatly. I adore Mario Puzo's work, but this was weak.
Rating: 
Summary: The original "family"
Review: Though choppy, this fictionalized tale of the Borgias was a quick, satisfying read. Puzo transports the reader to Italy at the time Columbus discovers the New World, to a world where popes have children and mistresses, the cardinal's hat is bought and bartered, sons and daughters are political pawns to be married for gain or connection, the Church is rich, rich, rich and oh so corrupt. Better than any modern soap opera, I understand why Puzo refers to the Borgias as "the first Family." More powerful than any don, Rodrigo Borgia becomes Pope and uses his children to gain alliances and riches. Despite their father's teaching that the family always comes first, the Borgia children have their own alliances and enemies within the family, further adding to the intrigue of the already politically trecherous Rome in the late 1400's. Puzo's focus is on the family--he writes about each Borgia in their turn--but he also does a wonderful job of supplying the historical context of treaties and wars(The map at the beginning of the book doesn't hurt!).
Lucrezia fairs better in this novel than in history, becoming an almost likable character. I enjoyed the richness of this historical novel.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointment of historical proportions.
Review: What a profound & shocking disappointment this attempt at historical fiction has turned out to be for me. I can but hope that the blame falls on the inept hand of editors & an incompetant co-author. Tragically, Mario Puzo's last book is also his most flawed & forgetable.A choppy & inelegent style; flat & underdeveloped characters; descriptions of settings that are less interesting than the back of your average box of breakfast cereal. And perhaps worst of all...historical inaccuracies -- especially glaring & obvious in a supposed work of historical fiction.
Rating:
Summary: A disgrace of an origin, and a farewell falling short
Review: When I first purchased this book, I was excited because Puzo's last two books have been the best thing since the Godfather. I came in expecting this to be the crowning jewel of the works of a man who was a master of his craft. My introduction to Puzo was with his second novel, The Fortunate Pilgrim, considered one of the best Italian-American novels ever written. I followed that up with the Godfather; needless to say, I was not let down. So, how is this book? To my dismay, only So-So.
The Borgias were, in essence, the first true italian crime family, coming from Spain, and truly showing the corruption of the "Not-So-Holy-Church," at a time where there was a brothel on every corner. Just the fact that the main character, a man of God, has three children is something that sums up the whole idea of chastity back then. cutting to the point, if you are a longtime fan, or even a new fan, you should honor his memory by reading it and forming your own opinion. Is it The Godfather? No. Is it Omerta, or The Last Don? No. But it will keep you interested, and give you a few hundred pages to say goodbye. My closing point is simply this: it is a shame that this is going to be his last book, but, thank god, it won't be the one he will be remembered by.
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