The Cyberiad: Fables for the Cybernetic Age - Stanisław Lem

In the strange, surreal world of The Cyberiad, outlandish events abound- two ingenious 'constructors' travel through a medieval universe offering their technical expertise; a machine capable of creating anything that starts with the letter 'N' meets an untimely end; kings oppress their people with parlour games; and PhD pirates demand ransom in knowledge rather than gold. It is a world where UFOs land silently on lawns at dawn, and where even the stars can be re-arranged for advertising purposes. In these fantastical short stories, Stanisław Lem rewrites the laws of reality, space and language itself to take us on an anarchic and darkly comic journey through a newly imagined universe.

'A Jorge Luis Borges for the Space Age.' - The New York Times