Worth writing, if end is obvious
I am currently sketching a novel about people at the end of time, some months or years before the Big Crunch:
There is a space station full of people who can only sit and watch as their final moment draws closer and closer. There are several different characters involved, from the rational boss, who tries to keep everything running (why? Because it's his job, he's responsible to make sure everyone survives as long as possible), to some religious people who finally meet their gods, to some young overly curious scientists who cannot wait to see what's coming, to the depressive maniac, who tries to blow up everything before the Crunch.
My problem is: From the beginning on, the reader will know, no one will survive and the let's call him Captain is fighting a useless struggle, because it is the Big Crunch. He can basically only sit and watch and help others getting along in their final moments.
Is this idea worth being written, or will the obvious ending drive readers away?
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2 answers
Just because The Crunch happens doesn't mean that your protagonists all lose.
Yes, the obvious antagonist is The Crunch. But is that all your heroes are fighting? Is that all they're striving for?
All your heroes are facing imminent doom. That does things to people. They may lose faith, or gain it (the religious folks — and they can have diverse reactions). People cling to routines (the boss) or descend into hysterical nihilism (the maniac).
You don't have A Plot as much as A Series of Character Arcs. Those individual conflicts are interesting and worth exploring. The Series of Arcs is the point of your story, not the Inevitable Crunch.
Also, who says The Crunch has to kill everyone? Maybe you have a side thread of a ship rushing to save everyone, or somehow divert The Crunch, or The Crunch is actually a way to pass into another universe. et cetera. Then you have both the resolution of the various Character Arcs and the exploration of what happens when people prepare themselves for death but it doesn't happen.
If your givens aren't working, change your givens.
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The ending is obvious in most books. In a romance, will the heroine get the guy? Obviously yes. In a detective novel, will the detective get the bad guy? Obviously yes.
Wanting to know how it ends is not actually about wanting to know the facts of the ending, or no one would ever reread a book. It is about wanting the experience of the ending.
A novel is an experience, not a puzzle. It's appeal depends on how compelling an experience you create, not on whether we know how it ends.
But also, what matters to us about the end of story is not what happens but how the characters face what happens. Stories are a kind of emotional rehearsal. A book such as you describe provide an emotional rehearsal for facing death. There is a huge appeal in that.
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