Cosmological Physics is a textbook about
cosmology
written by
John Peacock. As of 2000 it is the most
comprehensive book on the subject. It also
smells
nice. It delves into
quantum field theory in order
to address the physics of the early universe, but is
strongly informed by recent
observational results.
I should add that the reason I node this book is tha John was my Masters thesis supervisor. I got to read the book just before It got published. I read the whole damn thing and was able to follow maybe 60%. Its a great book, but is best used as a good review for the state of the art.
I didn't realise how famous he was until I went off to grad school in the States and people kept asking me what he was like.
The book is of a very high standard. Now I work for a science publishing house and I can appreciate even more the quality of this work. It falls into the category required reading if you want to take cosmology seriously.