Choosing good slick tires for a MTB
Since you have 700C/ISO-622 rims and you're doing pavement riding, I'd recommend one of the Conti "Gatorskin" tires. They go up to 32mm wide-- which is nearly optimal for urban street riding and nicely adequate for occasional trails w/o mud.

These are very popular as training tires for roadies (in narrower widths) because they're very resistant to flats caused by glass.

Handling will be different in "feel", but nothing that you can't get used to in 10 minutes of riding.