TOR hits it out of the ballpark!!

@6: Sorry vinisentient but there are not eighteen of those suckers, there are 23. :-) And I read that the next three books are already in the making. Make the life devotion, the later books are really great.

@4: I would also suggest to start with book 1 (Wild Cards) which was re-released a while ago and should be easy to find in book stores. Some of the later ones are unfortunately out-of-print (still need 12 & 16). Other good starting points would be, as suggested book 18 (Insight Straight) or book 13 (Card Sharks), although you do jump into an already defined universe, things are well explained.

@11: Universal has picked up the TV rights with George’s co-editor Melinda Snodgrass attached as executive produer, so the show may end up on NBC itself or SyFy (or they could sell it to another network altogether).