He's a philosopher who has spent a lifetime thinking about this problem, informed by the latest science of the day. Plus he's an excellent, lucid writer. He is a materialist, optimistic about being able to have as-satisfactory of an explanation of consciousness in the future as we do for life (no "élan vital" needed).
https://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Explained-Daniel-C-Denn...
That is an amazon link to Daniel Dennett's "Consciousness Explained", where he deals with consciousness, qualia, and so forth. Dennet's personal website is at: http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/incbios/dennettd/dennettd.htm
By the way, I myself am not a philosopher, I am a QA engineer, so it is not like I have a "stake" in this whole topic, but I just like Dennett's approach to it, which is more sane than some others.
[1]: https://www.amazon.ca/Consciousness-Explained-Daniel-C-Denne...