Someone might be curious as to what "Introduction to LQG(Mark II)" is all about, what is the main direction, if one were to look ahead. Someone teaching a course for juniors/seniors in LQG might, by the end of the semester, want to be in sight of this body of work:
http://arxiv.org/find/grp_physics/1/.../0/1/0/all/0/1
and in particular within striking distance of this 2001 trailblazer
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0102069
Absence of Singularity in Loop Quantum Cosmology
it is just 4 pages. the classical BB singularity is replaced by a bounce (from a prior gravitational collapse)
later it was discovered that conditions at the bounce automatically trigger a brief episode of inflation (without fine-tuning or elaborate "extras")
see for example
http://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0407069, "Genericness of Inflation in LQC" (also just 4 pages) and references thererin.
here are the papers which have cited this key paper:
http://arxiv.org/cits/gr-qc/0102069
there are currently about 75 papers which have cited it, and about half of these appeared after January 2004