advice i give to all my friends who ask about knives (lots of them, i'm a bit of a geeky foodie) is goto cooksillustrated.com and read their knife reviews. Im pretty sure some of them are available without paying (though in the true sense of ft, you can find year-long discount coupons online for $10/year - which is a bargain)...

if you're not super flush and want "good" knives that can take some abuse and still stay sharp, get the Victorinox Fibrox knives. 10" chef's, long serrated bread, 8"-ish slicer and a small paring knife are a good set that will handle 80-90% of most needs. You'll also want to get a good steel, MAC makes a really nice one, and learn how to use it (online videos abound). And a sharpener - electric ones are great but a good one is $100 - the chicago plastic ones you pull the knife through are good and cheap but once you get good at it, you'll want to upgrade.... :-) and don't just throw them in a drawer - get blade covers or a block to store them in (blade up).